Rationality in Economics and Politics: A Case Study in the Importance of Adequate Conceptual Analysis

One of the challenges for Cognitive Linguistics in charting the role of conceptualizations in the human world is how to address the frontier between social and cognitive dimensions of those processes that depend on conceptualization. The case that forms the topic of this paper is the conceptualization of rationality, including specifically rational decision-making in relation to economic dilemmas. I am going to take up the concept of rationality with a view to highlighting the connections between on the one hand its complex conceptual structure and on the other hand its complex societal role, focusing on a crucial context, that of determining and implementing economic policy.