
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.
This book investigates whether human beings are inherently rational or if empirical evidence from cognitive psychology proves that humans are fundamentally irrational. Edward Stein, a philosopher and cognitive scientist, evaluates the long-standing debate between those who argue for the conceptual necessity of rationality and those who point to experimental data showing consistent logical errors. He proposes that the question of human rationality cannot be resolved through conceptual analysis alone but requires an empirical approach integrated with advanced cognitive science. Ultimately, Stein argues for a naturalized epistemology, suggesting that empirical findings should fundamentally reshape our theories of knowledge.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts and scholars in philosophy and cognitive science recognize this work as a significant contribution to the debate on the nature of human reasoning. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is tailored for those with a background in analytic philosophy or cognitive psychology.
Page Count:
306
Publication Date:
1996-01-01
Publisher:
Clarendon Press
ISBN-10:
019158472X
ISBN-13:
9780191584725
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