: Re: What would be the best linking word for this context? Irrespective of all such debates on the limitations for rationally, one may consider a decision rational when it satisfies condition

@Odierno164

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Your construction is poor. Your first line effectively says "I am ignoring all debate about rationality and applying my own definition, a decision is rational when it satisfies condition X."

Why reference all the debate only to dismiss it?

Plus, if I or any other professor is reading this; I reject your dismissal out of hand: No author gets to unilaterally redefine the meaning of a word like "rational", and I shall be the judge of whether condition X is sufficient or not.

Say, "For the purposes of this paper, we shall consider a decision rational if and only if it satisfies condition X."

Or instead of "we" (commonly used in academic papers even for a single author; it includes the audience) you could say "the author", or "I" for presentation in other venues.

Even then my caveat about retaining the right to decide for myself whether X is good enough remains, but at least I am forewarned and can read the paper in the light it was written. Perhaps more subtle variations of "rational" need not be considered.

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