The Architecture of Rational Evaluation: Logic, Context, and Attention as a Cognitive Stabilization System

Rational evaluation is traditionally understood as an abstract formal activity governed by logical inference. However, this view does not fully capture how cognition operates under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and context dependence. This paper proposes a unified theoretical framework in which rational evaluation is understood as a progressive cognitive stabilization process operating across five logical domains: modal logic, many-valued logic, probability theory, formal logic, and informal logic. These domains correspond to successive stages through which mental representations evolve from diffuse possibility to coherent belief, reasoning, and action. Central to this process are two cognitive mechanisms: context discernment and attention. Context discernment establishes the interpretive framework within which representations acquire meaning and evaluative criteria, while attention—comprising selective, sustained, and executive subsystems—stabilizes representations by selecting, amplifying, and maintaining them. Logic and probability are thus reconceptualized not merely as external normative systems but as structural modes through which cognition stabilizes itself. This framework provides a unified account bridging philosophy of logic, epistemology, and cognitive science, situates itself relative to dual-process theory, predictive processing, and Bayesian cognitive science, and offers a new perspective on rationality as an emergent property of progressive representational stabilization under conditions of uncertainty.