pseudo-rationaladj.

1880 Contemp. Rev. June 744 A pseudo-rational connection between fact and feeling such as takes place in dreams.

1897 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 7 245 Outside of Germany, this pseudo-rational, reactionary system has gone far to paralyze the spirit of liberty.

1927 A. Huxley Proper Stud. 207 Though the earliest philosophies and religions may seem intellectually very remote from ourselves, we feel, none the less, that the emotions and intuitions to which they give rational, or pseudo-rational, expression are recognizably akin to our own.

1929 N. K. Smith tr. I. Kant Crit. Pure Reason 394 If..we do not merely apply our reason to objects of experience, but venture to extend these principles beyond the limits of experience, there arise pseudo-rational doctrines which can neither hope for confirmation in experience nor fear refutation by it.

1960 A. Koestler Lotus & Robot i. i. 51 This combination of mystic assertion and pseudo-rational proof is as old as the world.

1976 Contemp. Psychoanal. 12 93 Any dialogue of ideological infrastructures through overt discussions..should..reflect the irretrievable ambivalence of ideas..which..are pseudo-rational in that they unify human experience according to semiotic rules but conflict with strictly scientific statements, because they cannot be experimentally demonstrated.

1996 T. M. Schmaltz Malebranche's Theory of Soul Introd.12 The notion of Cartesian psychology as pseudo-rational—that on their own terms Descartes and his followers do not possess a clear objective view of that which constitutes the nature of the substance that thinks.

2003 J. O'Shaughnessy & N. J. O'Shaughnessy Marketing Power of Emotion v. 164 Consumers will seek to justify their purchase by providing rational or pseudorational grounds for their choices.