Rationality

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Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0241380308
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (413 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality by : Steven Pinker

Download or read book Rationality written by Steven Pinker and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 'Punchy, funny and invigorating ... Pinker is the high priest of rationalism' Sunday Times 'If you've ever considered taking drugs to make yourself smarter, read Rationality instead. It's cheaper, more entertaining, and more effective' Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind In the twenty-first century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that discovered vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures and conspiracy theorizing? In Rationality, Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply an irrational species - cavemen out of time fatally cursed with biases, fallacies and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives and set the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains, we think in ways that suit the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we have built up over millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, causal inference, and decision-making under uncertainty. These tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula, and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book - until now. Rationality matters. It leads to better choices in our lives and in the public sphere, and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress. Brimming with insight and humour, Rationality will enlighten, inspire and empower. 'A terrific book, much-needed for our time' Peter Singer

Interactive Minds

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521485678
Total Pages : 476 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (856 download)

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Book Synopsis Interactive Minds by : Paul B. Baltes

Download or read book Interactive Minds written by Paul B. Baltes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-04-26 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interactive Minds harnesses both research and theory from several disciplines to study cognitive development in the social context of the life course.

The Value of Rationality

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198802692
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis The Value of Rationality by : Ralph Wedgwood

Download or read book The Value of Rationality written by Ralph Wedgwood and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ralph Wedgwood gives a general account of what it is for states of mind and processes of thought to count as rational. Whether you are thinking rationally depends purely on what is going on in your mind, but rational thinking is a means to the goal of getting things right in your thinking, by believing the truth or making good choices.

Rationality

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Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 0128046236
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality by : Tzu-Wei Hung

Download or read book Rationality written by Tzu-Wei Hung and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rationality: Contexts and Constraints is an interdisciplinary reappraisal of the nature of rationality. In method, it is pluralistic, drawing upon the analytic approaches of philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and more. These methods guide exploration of the intersection between traditional scholarship and cutting-edge philosophical or scientific research. In this way, the book contributes to development of a suitably revised, comprehensive understanding of rationality, one that befits the 21st century, one that is adequately informed by recent investigations of science, pathology, non-human thought, emotion, and even enigmatic Chinese texts that might previously have seemed to be expressions of irrationalism. Addresses recent challenges and Identifies a direction for future research on rationality Investigates the relationship between rationality and mental disorders, such as delusion and depression Assesses reasoning in artificial intelligence and nonhuman animals Reflects on ancient Chinese Philosophy and possible cultural differences in human psychology Employs philosophical reflection, along with linguistic, probabilistic, and logical techniques

Rationality and Power

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226254494
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (544 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality and Power by : Bent Flyvbjerg

Download or read book Rationality and Power written by Bent Flyvbjerg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1998-02-28 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Enlightenment tradition, rationality is considered well-defined. However, the author of this study argues that rationality is context-dependent, and that the crucial context is determined by decision-makers' political power. He uses a real-world Danish project to illustrate this theory.

Rationality in Extensive Form Games

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9780792375401
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (754 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality in Extensive Form Games by : Andrés Perea

Download or read book Rationality in Extensive Form Games written by Andrés Perea and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2001-10-31 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is concerned with situations in which several persons reach decisions independently and the final consequence depends, potentially, upon each of the decisions taken. Such situations may be described formally by an extensive form game: a mathematical object which specifies the order in which decisions are to be taken, the information available to the decision makers at each point in time, and the consequence that results for each possible combination of decisions. A necessary requirement for rational behavior in such games is that each decision maker should reach a decision that is optimal, given his preferences over his own decisions. This requirement is far from sufficient, however, since every decision maker should in addition base his preferences upon the conjecture that his opponents will act optimally as well. It is this principle that distinguishes noncooperative game theory from one-person decision theory. The main purpose of Rationality in Extensive Form Games is to discuss different formalizations of this principle in extensive form games, such as backward induction, Nash equilibrium, forward induction and rationalizability, under the assumption that the decision makers' preferences are given by subjective expected utility functions. The various formalizations, or rationality criteria, are illustrated by examples, and the relationships among the different criteria are explored.

Rationality in Politics and its Limits

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317376412
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality in Politics and its Limits by : Terry Nardin

Download or read book Rationality in Politics and its Limits written by Terry Nardin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The word ‘rationality’ and its cognates, like ‘reason’, have multiple contexts and connotations. Rational calculation can be contrasted with rational interpretation. There is the rationality of proof and of persuasion, of tradition and of the criticism of tradition. Rationalism (and rationalists) can be reasonable or unreasonable. Reason is sometimes distinguished from revelation, superstition, convention, prejudice, emotion, and chance, but all of these also involve reasoning. In politics, three views of rationality – economic, moral, and historical – have been especially important, often defining approaches to politics and political theory such as utilitarianism and rational choice theory. These approaches privilege positive or natural law, responsibilities, or human rights, and emphasize the importance of culture and tradition, and therefore meaning and context. This book explores the understanding of rationality in politics and the relations between different approaches to rationality. Among the topics considered are the limits of rationality, the role of imagination and emotion in politics, the meaning of political realism, the nature of political judgment, and the relationship between theory and practice. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Discourse.

Media of Reason

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231527756
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Media of Reason by : Matthias Vogel

Download or read book Media of Reason written by Matthias Vogel and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Matthias Vogel challenges the belief, dominant in contemporary philosophy, that reason is determined solely by our discursive, linguistic abilities as communicative beings. In his view, the medium of language is not the only force of reason. Music, art, and other nonlinguistic forms of communication and understanding are also significant. Introducing an expansive theory of mind that accounts for highly sophisticated, penetrative media, Vogel advances a novel conception of rationality while freeing philosophy from its exclusive attachment to linguistics. Vogel's media of reason treats all kinds of understanding and thought, propositional and nonpropositional, as important to the processes and production of knowledge and thinking. By developing an account of rationality grounded in a new conception of media, he raises the profile of the prelinguistic and nonlinguistic dimensions of rationality and advances the Enlightenment project, buffering it against the postmodern critique that the movement fails to appreciate aesthetic experience. Guided by the work of Jürgen Habermas, Donald Davidson, and a range of media theorists, including Marshall McLuhan, Vogel rebuilds, if he does not remake, the relationship among various forms of media—books, movies, newspapers, the Internet, and television—while offering an original and exciting contribution to media theory.

How Biology Shapes Philosophy

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107055830
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis How Biology Shapes Philosophy by : David Livingstone Smith

Download or read book How Biology Shapes Philosophy written by David Livingstone Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of original essays by major thinkers, addressing how the biological sciences inform and inspire philosophical research.

Bounded Rationality and Public Policy

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402094736
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Bounded Rationality and Public Policy by : Alistair Munro

Download or read book Bounded Rationality and Public Policy written by Alistair Munro and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-06-10 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about bounded rationality and public policy. It is written from the p- spective of someone trained in public economics who has encountered the enormous literature on experiments in decision-making and wonders what implications it has for the normative aspects of public policy. Though there are a few new results or models, to a large degree the book is synthetic in tone, bringing together disparate literatures and seeking some accommodation between them. It has had a long genesis. It began with a draft of a few chapters in 2000, but has expanded in scope and size as the literature on behavioural economics has grown. At some point I realised that the geometric growth of behavioural - search and the arithmetic growth of my writing were inconsistent with an am- tion to be exhaustive. As such therefore I have concentrated on particular areas of behavioural economics and bounded rationality. The resulting book is laid out as follows: Chapter 1 provides an overview of the rest of the book, goes through some basic de?nitions and identi?es themes.

Rationality and Intelligence

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521017237
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality and Intelligence by : Jonathan Baron

Download or read book Rationality and Intelligence written by Jonathan Baron and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-07 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rationality and Intelligence develops and justifies a prescriptive theory of rational thinking in terms of utility theory and the theory of rational life plans. The prescriptive theory, buttressed by other assumptions, suggests that people generally think too little and in a way that is insufficiently critical of the initial possibilities that occur to them.

The Rationality of Perception

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198797087
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rationality of Perception by : Susanna Siegel

Download or read book The Rationality of Perception written by Susanna Siegel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is an important division in the human mind between perception and reasoning. We reason from information that we have already, but perception is a means of taking in new information. Susanna Siegel argues that these two aspects of the mind become deeply intertwined when beliefs, fears, desires, or prejudice influence what we perceive.

The Social Construction of Rationality

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317530764
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis The Social Construction of Rationality by : Onno Bouwmeester

Download or read book The Social Construction of Rationality written by Onno Bouwmeester and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are many different forms of rationality. In current economic discourse the main focus is on instrumental rationality and optimizing, while organization scholars, behavioural economists and policy scientists focus more on bounded rationality and satisficing. The interplay with value rationality or expressive rationality is mainly discussed in philosophy and sociology, but never in an empirical way. This book shows that not one, but three different forms of rationality (subjective, social and instrumental) determine the final outcomes of strategic decisions executed by major organizations. Based on an argumentation analysis of six high-profile public debates, this book adds nuance to the concept of bounded rationality. The chapters show how it is socially constructed, and thus dependent on shared beliefs or knowledge, institutional context and personal interests. Three double case studies investigating the three rationalities illustrate how decision makers and stakeholders discuss the appropriateness of these rationalities for making decisions in different practice contexts. The first touches more on personal concerns, like wearing a niqab or looking at obscene art exposed in a public environment; the second investigates debates on improving the rights and position of specific minorities; and the third is based on the agreement on instrumental reasons for two kinds of investments, but the cost arguments are regarded less relevant when social norms or personal interests are violated. The Social Construction of Rationality is for those who study political economy, economic psychology and public policy, as well as economic theory and philosophy.

Rationality in Action

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262250610
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (56 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality in Action by : John R. Searle

Download or read book Rationality in Action written by John R. Searle and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003-01-24 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of rationality and practical reason, or rationality in action, has been central to Western intellectual culture. In this invigorating book, John Searle lays out six claims of what he calls the Classical Model of rationality and shows why they are false. He then presents an alternative theory of the role of rationality in thought and action. A central point of Searle's theory is that only irrational actions are directly caused by beliefs and desires—for example, the actions of a person in the grip of an obsession or addiction. In most cases of rational action, there is a gap between the motivating desire and the actual decision making. The traditional name for this gap is "freedom of the will." According to Searle, all rational activity presupposes free will. For rationality is possible only where one has a choice among various rational as well as irrational options. Unlike many philosophical tracts, Rationality in Action invites the reader to apply the author's ideas to everyday life. Searle shows, for example, that contrary to the traditional philosophical view, weakness of will is very common. He also points out the absurdity of the claim that rational decision making always starts from a consistent set of desires. Rational decision making, he argues, is often about choosing between conflicting reasons for action. In fact, humans are distinguished by their ability to be rationally motivated by desire-independent reasons for action. Extending his theory of rationality to the self, Searle shows how rational deliberation presupposes an irreducible notion of the self. He also reveals the idea of free will to be essentially a thesis of how the brain works.

Autonomy, Rationality, and Contemporary Bioethics

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198858582
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis Autonomy, Rationality, and Contemporary Bioethics by : Jonathan Pugh

Download or read book Autonomy, Rationality, and Contemporary Bioethics written by Jonathan Pugh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personal autonomy is often lauded as a key value in contemporary Western bioethics, and the claim that there is an important relationship between autonomy and rationality is often treated as an uncontroversial claim in this sphere. Yet, there is also considerable disagreement about how we should cash out the relationship between rationality and autonomy. In particular, it is unclear whether a rationalist view of autonomy can be compatible with legal judgments that enshrine a patient's right to refuse medical treatment, regardless of whether ". . . the reasons for making the choice are rational, irrational, unknown or even non-existent". In this book, I bring recent philosophical work on the nature of rationality to bear on the question of how we should understand autonomy in contemporary bioethics. In doing so, I develop a new framework for thinking about the concept, one that is grounded in an understanding of the different roles that rational beliefs and rational desires have to play in personal autonomy. Furthermore, the account outlined here allows for a deeper understanding of different form of controlling influence, and the relationship between our freedom to act, and our capacity to decide autonomously. I contrast my rationalist with other prominent accounts of autonomy in bioethics, and outline the revisionary implications it has for various practical questions in bioethics in which autonomy is a salient concern, including questions about the nature of informed consent and decision-making capacity.

Rationality in Economics

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139466461
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality in Economics by : Vernon L. Smith

Download or read book Rationality in Economics written by Vernon L. Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-05 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The principal findings of experimental economics are that impersonal exchange in markets converges in repeated interaction to the equilibrium states implied by economic theory, under information conditions far weaker than specified in the theory. In personal, social, and economic exchange, as studied in two-person games, cooperation exceeds the prediction of traditional game theory. This book relates these two findings to field studies and applications and integrates them with the main themes of the Scottish Enlightenment and with the thoughts of F. A. Hayek: through emergent socio-economic institutions and cultural norms, people achieve ends that are unintended and poorly understood. In cultural changes, the role of constructivism, or reason, is to provide variation, and the role of ecological processes is to select the norms and institutions that serve the fitness needs of societies.

Rationality in Thought and Action

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Author :
Publisher : Praeger
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality in Thought and Action by : Martin Tamny

Download or read book Rationality in Thought and Action written by Martin Tamny and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1986-05-19 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of original essays examines the controversy over and attacks on rationality in the methodologies of the humanities and the physical and social sciences. These essays represent the thinking of a wide variety of philosophers, psychologists, historians, classicists, and economists about the role of rationality in thought and action. Reflecting the differing perspectives of their authors' disciplines, as well as the centrality of rationality to those disciplines, they are important additions to a debate that has been going on for some twenty years. Beginning with an introductory essay in which K.D. Irani covers the various ways in which rationality can be approached, the body of the book is divided into five sections dealing with various aspects of the issue. Respectively, they are concerned with rationality as it relates to ethical and social thought and action; general scientific thought and the particular disciplines of economics, history, and law; the analytic and hermenutic approaches to communications and learning; and the contrasting classical traditions of ancient Greece and China. In the final section, two differing theories concerning the nature of rationality itself are presented. A list of suggested further readings completes the volume.