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A Justification of Rationality
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Price: $24.50
Hardcover - 275 pages |
| Release Date: June 1976 |
ISBN10: 0-87395-350-9
ISBN13: 978-0-87395-350-4
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Price: $26.95
Paperback - 275 pages |
| Release Date: |
ISBN10: N/A
ISBN13: 978-1-4384-5068-1
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| Summary |
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The aim of this book is to defend rationality against skepticism fideism, and irrationalism. Rationality is an ideal which represents the best in our civilization. The ideal, however, must be reaffirmed from time to time and this is done here by expressing it in a contemporary idiom and by defending it against new doubts. Professor Kekes justifies rationality most convincingly at the same time he demonstrates how important philosophy is for the preservation of the finest in Western tradition.
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Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction
Part 1. The Problem
1. The sceptical challenge to rationality
Introduction
Humean scepticism
Rationality and justification
Psychological and epistemological scepticism
Scepticism: a summary
Part 2. Inconclusive Arguments Against Scepticism
2. The pragmatic argument: Carnap
The pragmatic answer to scepticism
Carnap's argument
Internal criticisms of Carnap's argument
Existential presuppositions and metaphysical theories
External criticisms of the pragmatic argument
Conclusion
3. The appeal to common sense: Moore
Common sense
The primacy of common sense
The rational justification of common sense
Summary and conclusion
4. The implications of ordinary language: the paradigm case argument
Introduction
The first thesis
The second thesis
The third thesis
Conclusion
5. Science as a touchstone of rationality: Popper
Fallibilism and the sceptical challenge
Popper's critical rationalism
Criticism of critical rationalism: the metaphysical presuppositions of science
Conclusion
6. The illegitimacy of the sceptical challenge: Winch
Introduction
A coherence theory of rationality
Two internal criticisms
External criticism
Conclusion
The state of the argument
Part 3. Rationality
7. The requirements of the theory of rationality
External and internal accounts of rationality
Explanation of preanalytic facts
Rationality and logic
Rationality and success in action
Rationality and criticism
Defense of presuppositions
The rationality of theories
Psychological, formal, and philosophical accounts of rationality
Conformity to standards of rationality
8. A theory of rationality: the external account
Introduction
Problem-solving
Problems of life and problems of reflection
Removable problems and enduring problems
Conclusion
9. A theory of rationality: the internal account
Introduction
Logical consistency
Conceptual coherence
Explanatory power
Criticizability
Conclusion
10. The value of rationality
Why should a person accept a rational theory?
The justification of rationality
Reason and emotion
Rationality and practice
Rationality and politics
Conclusion
The state of the argument
Part 4. The Refutation of Scepticism
11. A refutation of solipsistic scepticism
Solipsism and scepticism
The strategy of the criticism
The refutation of solipsistic scepticism
An analogy
12. Metaphysics, rationality, and vision
Metaphysics and scepticism
Metaphysical vision
The rationality of metaphysical vision
13. Metaphysics, rationality, and presuppositions
Introduction
Collingwood's account of metaphysics
The nature of presuppositions
Regulative presuppositions
Categorial presuppositions
Ontological presuppositions
The state of the argument
Conclusion
Notes
Index
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