Rationality

Originally published in 1993, reissued here with a new introduction, the study of rationality was one of the most exciting and important areas of contemporary cognitive science: recent research involved collaborations across disciplinary boundaries, and theoretical progress had been rapid and profound. Rationality: Psychological and Philosophical Perspectives gathers together leading researchers in Europe and the United States to survey these developments and present them in an accessible and interesting form. While the emphasis of the book is primarily psychological, the contributors also consider arguments from philosophy, logic and computational theory.

Several major themes emerge: the two views of rationality as logical power and as the ability to do the right thing; the relation between normative (logical) and descriptive (psychological) accounts of human reason; the need to be cautious both in interpreting the dictates of logic and in the conclusions we draw from experiments; arguments for and against the theory of ‘mental logic’; and the bounds of rationality itself. In addition, theoretical arguments are also directed at the kinds of problems for rationality which are found in the real world. Today it can be read in its historical context.