Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

“Reason” and “rationality” are, today, problematic notions: considered for a long time, in the history of Western thought, as distinctive traits of man and of the Euro-American civilization, from a certain point onwards they have been called into question and ripped apart by the crisis and the malaise of the latter. In the light of the most recent controversies and reflections on the subject developed over the first half of the 20th century, this book aims to riegnite the debate on “ratio” with the intention of highlighting – through a series of “case studies” – the fine texture of the multiple meanings and uses of the notion of reason, but also to question the different “eras” of reason by attempting to reconstruct its “history”. The essays included in this volume, therefore, contextualise and analyse the meanings and ambiguities of the term “ratio” and its derivatives within the framework of the many discussions that have marked its history from the earliest modernity, when the concept assumed new configurations with respect to the uses attested in Ancient and Medieval thought, to the contemporary debate. “Ragione” e “razionalita” sono oggi nozioni problematiche: considerate a lungo, nella storia del pensiero occidentale, come tratti distintivi dell’uomo e della civiltà euro-americana, da un certo punto in poi sono state messe in discussione e lacerate dalla crisi e dal malessere di quest’ultima. Alla luce delle controversie più recenti e delle riflessioni sul tema sviluppate nella prima metà del Novecento, questo libro si propone di riaprire la querelle sulla ratio con l’intento di mettere in luce – attraverso una serie di “casi di studio” – la grana sottile dei molteplici significati e usi della nozione di ragione, ma anche di interrogarsi sulle differenti “epoche” della ragione provando a ricostruirne la “storia”. I saggi contenuti in questo volume, dunque, contestualizzano e analizzano le accezioni e le ambiguità del termine ratio e dei suoi derivati nel quadro delle molteplici discussioni che ne hanno ritmato la storia a partire dalla prima modernità, quando il concetto assunse nuove configurazioni rispetto agli usi attestati nel pensiero antico e medioevale, sino al dibattito contemporaneo .

reason --- rationality --- rationalization --- history --- modernity --- contemporary philosophy

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Can we prove the necessity of our best physical theories by rational means, without appeal to experience? This book recounts a few ingenious attempts to derive physical theories by reason only, beginning with Descartes' geometric construction of the world, and finishing with recent derivations of quantum mechanics from natural axioms. Deductions based on theological, metaphysical, or transcendental arguments are worth remembering for the ways they motivated and structured physical theory, even though we would now criticize their excessive confidence in the power of the mind. Other deductions more modestly relied on criteria for the comprehensibility of nature, including forms of measurability, causality, homogeneity, and correspondence. The central thesis of this book is that such criteria, when properly applied to idealized systems, effectively determine some of our most important theories as well as the mathematical character of the laws of physics. The relevant arguments are not purely rational, because only experience can tell us to which extent nature is comprehensible in a given way. Nor do they block the possibility of ever more varied forms of comprehensibility. They nonetheless suggest the inevitability of much of our theoretical physics.

Physics --- Practical reason --- Practical rationality --- Practical reasoning --- Rationality, Practical --- Reasoning, Practical --- Reason --- Philosophy --- History --- History. --- Methodology.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Having its seeds in the 2nd International Lauener Symposium held in honour of Dagfinn Føllesdal, the present collection contains a rich, kaleidoscopic ensemble of previously unpublished contributions by leading authors, representing diverse approaches to a variety of philosophical themes on which Føllesdal has had a longstanding, formative impact. Føllesdal himself contributes an orientating essay -continuing to develop his pioneering theory of reference -as well as in-depth commentaries on each of the other authors' elaborated papers plus candid answers in the added interview. The volume assembles a wealth of original articles containing in part direct discussions of Føllesdal's work and covering a broad range of topics like subjectivity, intersubjectivity, objectivity, rationality, logics and mathematics, choice theory, values, modalities, intentionality, individuation, perception, communication, meaning, reference, the slingshot, one- and two-sorted semantics, evidence, neuropsychology, space and time, science and society, methodology, fallibilism, the relative a priori, justification, holism, the life-world, reflective equilibrium, empathy, and ethics. Moreover the book includes an incisive memoir of Føllesdal the philosopher as well as a spanning interview with him, which are both critically directing toward Føllesdal's subtly differentiated understanding of the dynamic philosophical horizon he shares in. With contributions from Dagfinn Føllesdal, Charles Parsons, Patrick Suppes, Jon Elster, John Perry, Michael Friedman, Dag Prawitz, Wilhelm K. Essler, David Woodruff Smith, Olav Gjelsvik, Graciela De Pierris, Nils Roll-Hansen, Christian Beyer, Øystein Linnebo, Michael Frauchiger.

Practical reason. --- Practical rationality --- Practical reasoning --- Rationality, Practical --- Reasoning, Practical --- Reason

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Resistance used to mean irrational and reactionary behaviour, assuming that rationality resides on the side of progress and its parties. The end of the Cold War allows us to drop ideological and prejudicial analysis. Indeed, we recognise that resistance is a historical constant, and its relation to rationality or irrationality is not predetermined. This volume asks: to what extent are social scientific conceptions of 'resistances' sui generis, or borrowed from natural sciences by metaphor an...

Practical reason. --- Practical rationality --- Practical reasoning --- Rationality, Practical --- Reasoning, Practical --- Reason

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

“Reason” and “rationality” are, today, problematic notions: considered for a long time, in the history of Western thought, as distinctive traits of man and of the Euro-American civilization, from a certain point onwards they have been called into question and ripped apart by the crisis and the malaise of the latter. In the light of the most recent controversies and reflections on the subject developed over the first half of the 20th century, this book aims to riegnite the debate on “ratio” with the intention of highlighting – through a series of “case studies” – the fine texture of the multiple meanings and uses of the notion of reason, but also to question the different “eras” of reason by attempting to reconstruct its “history”. The essays included in this volume, therefore, contextualise and analyse the meanings and ambiguities of the term “ratio” and its derivatives within the framework of the many discussions that have marked its history from the earliest modernity, when the concept assumed new configurations with respect to the uses attested in Ancient and Medieval thought, to the contemporary debate. “Ragione” e “razionalita” sono oggi nozioni problematiche: considerate a lungo, nella storia del pensiero occidentale, come tratti distintivi dell’uomo e della civiltà euro-americana, da un certo punto in poi sono state messe in discussione e lacerate dalla crisi e dal malessere di quest’ultima. Alla luce delle controversie più recenti e delle riflessioni sul tema sviluppate nella prima metà del Novecento, questo libro si propone di riaprire la querelle sulla ratio con l’intento di mettere in luce – attraverso una serie di “casi di studio” – la grana sottile dei molteplici significati e usi della nozione di ragione, ma anche di interrogarsi sulle differenti “epoche” della ragione provando a ricostruirne la “storia”. I saggi contenuti in questo volume, dunque, contestualizzano e analizzano le accezioni e le ambiguità del termine ratio e dei suoi derivati nel quadro delle molteplici discussioni che ne hanno ritmato la storia a partire dalla prima modernità, quando il concetto assunse nuove configurazioni rispetto agli usi attestati nel pensiero antico e medioevale, sino al dibattito contemporaneo .

xxxx --- reason --- rationality --- rationalization --- history --- modernity --- contemporary philosophy