Without Good Reason: The Rationality Debate in Philosophy and Cognitive Science (Clarendon Library of Logic & Philosophy) (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy) - Softcover

Stein, Edward

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198237731 ISBN 13: 9780198237730

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 1998

Synopsis

In this book, Edward Stein offers a clear critical account of the debate about rationality in philosophy and cognitive science. He discusses concepts of rationality-the pictures of rationality on which the debate centers-and assesses the empirical evidence used to argue that humans are irrational. He concludes that the question of human rationality must be answered not conceptually but empirically, using the full resources of an advanced cognitive science. Furthermore, he extends this conclusion to argue that empirical considerations are also relevant to the theory of knowledge-in other words, that epistemology should be naturalized.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Are humans rational? Various experiments performed over the last several decades have been interpreted as showing that humans are irrational, we make significant and consistent errors in logical reasoning, probabilistic reasoning, similarity judgements, and risk-assessment, to name a few areas. But can these experiments establish human irrationality, or is it a conceptual truth that humans must be rational, as various philosophers have argued? In this book, Edward Stein offers a clear critical account of this debate about rationality in philosophy and cognitive science. He discusses concepts of rationality - the pictures of rationality that the debate centres - on and assesses the empirical evidence used to argue that humans are irrational. He concludes that the question of human rationality must be answered not conceptually but empirically, using the full resources of an advanced cognitive science. Furthermore, he extends this conclusion to argue that empirical considerations are also relevant to the theory of knowledge - in other words, that epistemology should be naturalized.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198237731
• ISBN 13: 9780198237730
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312