A mouse can learn the best way to get through the maze so as to quickly get the cheese at the end. This limited view of rationality is essentially Hume s. It is a conception of rationality according to which rationality is no more than a tool by which we satisfy desires. On the Humean conception, reason is silent on what is good or bad. It doesn t matter what you tell reason it is you want.
Reason just figures out how best to get it.
Reason never rejects any desire I ask it to satisfy. In this picture, if this is how even human reason functions, then really we are no better than mice, no better than the computer just slavishly being led around by some pretty blind passions. In fact, that the mouse is driven, can t but help pursue the cheese, shows it to be somewhat slavish to its desires. Likewise, the tiger can t help but pursue the deer nor can the computer help but do the calculations it is programmed to do. A Kantian Conception of Rationality Kant, however, sees us as better than that.