Forum: What Do We Mean When We Say 'Rationality' in Public Affairs?

This paper is an attempt at what Habermas has called “discursive redemption.” I ask, what does it mean when people complement or accuse one another of being “rational”? Three goals are incorporated in this task. First, I survey the various meanings of rationality in the intellectual history of philosophy. In particular I cover Hume, Kant, instrumental rationality and the analytical school of logic. Second, frankly, I interweave a reply to critics of Fox/Miller's Postmodern Public Administration, as being too rational. Third, I attempt a positive and more constructive (I think) understanding of the underlying rationality of even the supposedly irrationalists.