For half a century the idea of rational thought has been challenged by discoveries that call into question some of its foundations. How we actually think seems to be at odds with descriptive and prescriptive models that once held sway in the development of modern science and scholarship. Rationality: Contexts and Constraints is an active attempt to revise those models, so as to enhance their compatibility with new discoveries, in a maximally coherent and inclusive way.
Rationality: Contexts and Constraints is an inter-disciplinary 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, Rationality: Contexts and Constraints 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
Daugiau informacijos
Informed by what was learned in recent decades, this eye-opening book sketches a nuanced view of rationality, both human and non-human
Part I: Introduction
1. Rationality and its Contexts
Timothy Joseph Lane
Part II: Science
2. Bayesian Psychology and Human Rationality
Shaun Nichols & Richard Samuels
3. Scientific Rationality: Phlogiston as a Case Study
Jonathon Hricko
4. Cross-cultural Differences in Thinking: Some Thoughts on Psychological
Paradigms
Ngar Yin Louis Lee
Part III: Pathology
5. Delusion and the Norms of Rationality
Tim Bayne
6. Outline of a Theory of Delusion: Irrationality and Pathological Belief
Ian Gold
7. Is Depressive Rumination Rational?
Timothy Joseph Lane & Georg Northoff
Part IV: Irrationality
8. Reason and Unreason in Chinese Philosophy
Yiu-ming Fung
9. Irrationally Intelligible or Rationally Unintelligible?
Wai Chun Leong
10. Does Classical Chinese Philosophy Reveal Alternative Rationalities?
Ting-mien Lee
Part V: Non-Human
11. Bridging the Logic-Based and Probability-Based Approaches to Artificial
Intelligence
Hanti Lin
12. Rationality and Escherichia coli
Tzu-Wei Hung
Part VI: Communication and Emotion
13. Rational Belief and Evidence-Based Update
Eric McCready
14. Reason and Emotion in Xunzis Moral Psychology
Ellie Hua Wang
Tzu-Wei Hung is an assistant research fellow and a project coordinator at the Institute of European and American Studies at the Academia Sincia. His research and teaching interests include philosophy of psychology, philosophy of language, and early Formosan Philosophy. He is also the editor of Communicative Action (Springer) and Existential Engagement (Academia Sinica). His honors include the Taiwan Merit Scholarship, National Science Council and the Academia Sinica Fellowships for Doctoral Candidates in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Timothy Joseph Lane holds the Philosophy of Mind Chair at Taipei Medical University (TMU). He is also Dean of TMUs College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Director of TMU-Shuang Ho Hospitals Brain and Consciousness Research Center. In addition, he is a joint-appointed Research Fellow with Academia Sinica's Institute of European and American Studies, as well as an adjunct research fellow with National Chengchi University's Research Center for Mind, Brain, and Learning. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including: Trends in Cognitive Sciences, The Journal of Philosophy, Analysis, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, and Social Neuroscience. He has been the recipient of awards from many agencies and foundations, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health and the Joseph and Frances Morgan-Swain Foundation. He was also awarded the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technologys highest award for research excellence.