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Rationalize   /rˈæʃənəlˌaɪz/   Listen
verb
Rationalize  v. t.  
1.
To make rational; also, to convert to rationalism.
2.
To interpret in the manner of a rationalist.
3.
To form a rational conception of.
4.
(Alg.) To render rational; to free from radical signs or quantities.


Rationalize  v. i.  To use, and rely on, reason in forming a theory, belief, etc., especially in matters of religion: to accord with the principles of rationalism. "Theodore... is justly considered the chief rationalizing doctor of antiquity."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Rationalize" Quotes from Famous Books



... that art cannot be resolved into an empirical concept; knows that pleasure and pain are united with the aesthetic activity only in an indirect manner; that morality has nothing to do with art; that it is impossible to rationalize art, as is the case with science and philosophy, and to prove it beautiful or ugly with the aid of reason. Here this Aesthetic is content to stop, satisfied with a knowledge ...
— Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic • Benedetto Croce
... source and origin I did not go into. I simply made an attempt to imply that such states of feeling were responsible for the discomfort and feeling of inadequacy of the patient, and as Dr. Jelliffe has well repeated that the victim attempts to rationalize this in supernatural fashion and that this may be not at all dependent upon the notion of the supernatural universe he has imbibed as a child. It is a construing of natural means for ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10
... a condition were imposed on man, it must inevitably defeat its own purpose; for man cannot possibly continue to live a divided life, and persist in believing that for which his reason knows no defence. We must, in the long run, either rationalize our faith in morality and religion, or abandon them as illusions. And we should at least hesitate to deny that reason—in spite of its apparent failure in the past to justify our faith in the principles of spiritual ...
— Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher • Henry Jones
... taking responsibility, and so on, the dice are weighted in favor of the continuation of such conduct when reason controls. The child has then only to enlarge his view, build up his principles in accord with conduct already in operation—he needs only to rationalize what he already possesses. On the other hand, if during early years his conduct violates moral law, he is in the grip of habits of great strength which will result in two dangers. He may be blind to the other side, he may not realize how his conduct violates the laws of social progress; or, knowing, ...
— How to Teach • George Drayton Strayer and Naomi Norsworthy
... had written down had excited within him. He had put the case, or rather the outline of it, conjecturally to a scientific friend, who shook his head, and thought Clarke getting queer, and on this particular evening Clarke was making an effort to rationalize the story, when a sudden knock at the door ...
— The Great God Pan • Arthur Machen


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