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Beschreibung
Ralph Wedgwood gives a general account of the concept of rationality. The Value of Rationality is designed as the first instalment of a trilogy - to be followed by accounts of the requirements of rationality that apply specifically to beliefs and choices. The central claim of the book is that rationality is a normative concept. This claim is defended against some recent objections. Normative concepts are to be explained in terms of values (not in terms of 'ought' or reasons). Rationality is itself a value: rational thinking is in a certain way better than irrational thinking. Specifically, rationality is an internalist concept: what it is rational for you to think now depends solely on what is now present in your mind. Nonetheless, rationality has an external goal - the goal of thinking correctly, or getting things right in one's thinking. The connection between thinking rationally and thinking correctly is probabilistic: if your thinking is irrational, that is in effect bad news about your thinking's degree of correctness. This account of rationality explains how we should set about giving a theory of what it is for beliefs and choices to be rational. Wedgwood thus unifies practical and theoretical rationality, and reveals the connections between formal accounts of rationality (such as those of formal epistemologists and decision theorists) and the more metaethics-inspired recent discussions of the normativity of rationality. He does so partly by drawing on recent work in the semantics of normative and modal terms (including deontic modals like 'ought').
Ralph Wedgwood gives a general account of the concept of rationality. The Value of Rationality is designed as the first instalment of a trilogy - to be followed by accounts of the requirements of rationality that apply specifically to beliefs and choices. The central claim of the book is that rationality is a normative concept. This claim is defended against some recent objections. Normative concepts are to be explained in terms of values (not in terms of 'ought' or reasons). Rationality is itself a value: rational thinking is in a certain way better than irrational thinking. Specifically, rationality is an internalist concept: what it is rational for you to think now depends solely on what is now present in your mind. Nonetheless, rationality has an external goal - the goal of thinking correctly, or getting things right in one's thinking. The connection between thinking rationally and thinking correctly is probabilistic: if your thinking is irrational, that is in effect bad news about your thinking's degree of correctness. This account of rationality explains how we should set about giving a theory of what it is for beliefs and choices to be rational. Wedgwood thus unifies practical and theoretical rationality, and reveals the connections between formal accounts of rationality (such as those of formal epistemologists and decision theorists) and the more metaethics-inspired recent discussions of the normativity of rationality. He does so partly by drawing on recent work in the semantics of normative and modal terms (including deontic modals like 'ought').
Über den Autor
After studying at Oxford, King's College London, and Cornell, Ralph Wedgwood taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1995-2002) and at Merton College, Oxford (2002-2011), before taking up his current position at the University of Southern California in 2012. He works principally on ethics and epistemology. His interests in ethics include the history of ethics (especially Plato and Butler) and issues in applied political philosophy (especially relating to same-sex marriage); but most of his work in ethics has focused on metaethics and the theory of rational choice and practical reason. He is the author of The Nature of Normativity (Oxford University Press, 2007), and of about fifty articles in various volumes and philosophy journals.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
  • Introduction

  • 1: Is Rationality Normative?

  • 2: The Beginnings of an Answer

  • 3: 'Rationally Ought' Implies 'Can'

  • 4: The Pitfalls of 'Reasons'

  • 5: Objective and Subjective 'Ought'

  • 6: Rationality as a Virtue

  • 7: Internalism Re-explained

  • 8: Why Does Rationality Matter?

  • 9: The Aim of Rationality: Correctness

  • Conclusion: Looking Ahead

Details
Erscheinungsjahr: 2019
Fachbereich: Allgemeines
Genre: Importe, Philosophie
Jahrhundert: Antike
Rubrik: Geisteswissenschaften
Thema: Lexika
Medium: Taschenbuch
Inhalt: Kartoniert / Broschiert
ISBN-13: 9780198845836
ISBN-10: 0198845839
Sprache: Englisch
Einband: Kartoniert / Broschiert
Autor: Wedgwood, Ralph
Hersteller: OXFORD UNIV PR
Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, D-36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr@libri.de
Maße: 234 x 156 x 15 mm
Von/Mit: Ralph Wedgwood
Erscheinungsdatum: 04.09.2019
Gewicht: 0,427 kg
Artikel-ID: 116801049