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Without good reason : the rationality debate in philosophy and cognitive science

Author: Edward Stein
Publisher: Oxford : Clarendon Press ; Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
Series: Clarendon library of logic and philosophy.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
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
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Details

Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Edward Stein
ISBN: 0198235747 9780198235743
OCLC Number: 32854590
Description: viii, 296 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
Contents: 1. Introduction --
2. Competence --
3. Psychological Evidence --
4. Charity --
5. Reflective Equilibrium --
6. Evolution --
7. The Standard Picture --
8. Conclusion.
Series Title: Clarendon library of logic and philosophy.
Responsibility: Edward Stein.
More information:

Abstract:

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.

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