Bayesian Rationality

Bayesian Rationality PDF Author: Mike Oaksford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198524498
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
For almost 2,500 years, the Western concept of what is to be human has been dominated by the idea that the mind is the seat of reason - humans are, almost by definition, the rational animal. In this text a more radical suggestion for explaining these puzzling aspects of human reasoning is put forward.

Bayesian Rationality

Bayesian Rationality PDF Author: Mike Oaksford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198524498
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Get Book Here

Book Description
For almost 2,500 years, the Western concept of what is to be human has been dominated by the idea that the mind is the seat of reason - humans are, almost by definition, the rational animal. In this text a more radical suggestion for explaining these puzzling aspects of human reasoning is put forward.

The Roots of Reason

The Roots of Reason PDF Author: David Papineau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199288712
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
David Papineau presents a controversial view of human reason, portraying it as a normal part of the natural world, and drawing on the empirical sciences to illuminate its workings. In these six interconnected essays he offers a fresh approach to some long-standing problems.Papineau rejects the contemporary orthodoxy that genuine thought hinges on some species of non-natural normativity. He explores the evolutionary histories of theoretical and practical rationality, indicating ways in which capacities underlying human reasoning have been selected for their biological advantages. He then looks at the connection between decision and probability, explaining how good decisions need to be informed by causal as well as probabilistic facts. Finally he defends theradical view that a satisfactory understanding of decision-making is only possible within a specific interpretation of quantum mechanics.By placing the subject in its scientific context, Papineau shows how human rationality plays an explicable role in the functioning of the natural world.

Probability and Rationality

Probability and Rationality PDF Author: Ellery Eells
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9789051833164
Category : Probabilities
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description


Probability and Rationality

Probability and Rationality PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004457208
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description


Probability and the Logic of Rational Belief

Probability and the Logic of Rational Belief PDF Author: Henry Ely Kyburg
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description


The Roots of Reason

The Roots of Reason PDF Author: David Papineau
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191516082
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
David Papineau presents a controversial view of human reason, portraying it as a normal part of the natural world, and drawing on the empirical sciences to illuminate its workings. In these six interconnected essays he offers a fresh approach to some long-standing problems. Papineau rejects the contemporary orthodoxy that genuine thought hinges on some species of non-natural normativity. He explores the evolutionary histories of theoretical and practical rationality, indicating ways in which capacities underlying human reasoning have been selected for their biological advantages. He then looks at the connection between decision and probability, explaining how good decisions need to be informed by causal as well as probabilistic facts. Finally he defends the radical view that a satisfactory understanding of decision-making is only possible within a specific interpretation of quantum mechanics. By placing the subject in its scientific context, Papineau shows how human rationality plays an explicable role in the functioning of the natural world.

The Stability of Belief

The Stability of Belief PDF Author: Hannes Leitgeb
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191047015
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In everyday life we normally express our beliefs in all-or-nothing terms: I believe it is going to rain; I don't believe that my lottery ticket will win. In other cases, if possible, we resort to numerical probabilities: my degree of belief that it is going to rain is 80%; the probability that I assign to my ticket winning is one in a million. It is an open philosophical question how all-or-nothing belief and numerical belief relate to each other, and how we ought to reason with them simultaneously. The Stability of Belief develops a theory of rational belief that aims to answer this question. Hannes Leitgeb develops a joint normative theory of all-or-nothing belief and numerical degrees of belief. While rational all-or-nothing belief is studied in traditional epistemology and is usually assumed to obey logical norms, rational degrees of belief constitute the subject matter of Bayesian epistemology and are normally taken to conform to probabilistic norms. One of the central open questions in formal epistemology is what beliefs and degrees of belief have to be like in order for them to cohere with each other. The answer defended in this book is a stability account of belief: a rational agent believes a proposition just in case the agent assigns a stably high degree of belief to it. Leitgeb determines this theory's consequences for, and applications to, learning, suppositional reasoning, decision-making, assertion, acceptance, conditionals, and chance. The volume builds new bridges between logic and probability theory, traditional and formal epistemology, theoretical and practical rationality, and synchronic and diachronic norms for reasoning.

Rationality

Rationality PDF Author: Steven Pinker
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241380308
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 'Punchy, funny and invigorating ... Pinker is the high priest of rationalism' Sunday Times 'If you've ever considered taking drugs to make yourself smarter, read Rationality instead. It's cheaper, more entertaining, and more effective' Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind In the twenty-first century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that discovered vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures and conspiracy theorizing? In Rationality, Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply an irrational species - cavemen out of time fatally cursed with biases, fallacies and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives and set the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains, we think in ways that suit the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we have built up over millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, causal inference, and decision-making under uncertainty. These tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula, and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book - until now. Rationality matters. It leads to better choices in our lives and in the public sphere, and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress. Brimming with insight and humour, Rationality will enlighten, inspire and empower. 'A terrific book, much-needed for our time' Peter Singer

Studies in Inductive Probability and Rational Expectation

Studies in Inductive Probability and Rational Expectation PDF Author: Theo A.F. Kuipers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400998309
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
3 in philosophy, and therefore in metaphilosophy, cannot be based on rules that avoid spending time on pseudo-problems. Of course, this implies that, if one succeeds in demonstrating convincingly the pseudo-character of a problem by giving its 'solution', the time spent on it need not be seen as wasted. We conclude this section with a brief statement of the criteria for concept explication as they have been formulated in several places by Carnap, Hempel and Stegmiiller. Hempel's account ([13J, Chapter 1) is still very adequate for a detailed introduction. The process of explication starts with the identification of one or more vague and, perhaps, ambiguous concepts, the so-called explicanda. Next, one tries to disentangle the ambiguities. This, however, need not be possible at once. Ultimately the explicanda are to be replaced (not necessarily one by one) by certain counterparts, the so-called explicata, which have to conform to four requirements. They have to be as precise as possible and as simple as possible. In addition, they have to be useful in the sense that they give rise to the formulation of theories and the solution of problems. The three requirements of preciseness, simplicity and usefulness. have of course to be pursued in all concept formation.

Modality, Probability, and Rationality

Modality, Probability, and Rationality PDF Author: James F. Sennett
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This work examines several major projects in Plantinga's career, particularly as they relate to his defense of the rationality of theistic belief. Chapters are dedicated to his modal ontological argument, his free will defense, his attacks on inductive arguments from evil, and his «Reformed epistemology» program, in which he argues that theistic belief can be rational without reliance on propositional evidence. Along the way the book deals with important issues in possible worlds semantics, probability theory, and the theory of knowledge. Account is taken of Plantinga's most recent work, including his forthcoming books in epistemology. Though some portions of the work deal with technical concepts of modal and probabilistic logics, all professional philosophers and many professional theologians should find the book accessible, understandable, and informative.