ABSTRACT
Philosophers often praise people for their rationality and, conversely, criticise others for their irrationality. A crucial question for epistemologists has been how to explain the distinction that is being made. The importance of this question for those who wish to theorise about knowledge is that intuitively it is only rational beliefs that are candidates for knowledge, with irrational beliefs by their nature not being instances of knowledge. Epistemic rationality is a form of rationality which is aimed at the goal of true belief. A good way of highlighting the distinction between a rational belief and a specifically epistemically rational belief is by considering Pascal's wager, named after the French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician Blaise Pascal. The devoutly religious Pascal wanted to show that belief in God is rational. The kind of rationality that philosophers are particularly interested in as theorists of knowledge is epistemic rationality.
