Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Reason and Rationality

  • A Question for Benson Mates

    According to Benson Mates (1919-2009), all the major problems of philosophy are "insoluble though intelligible." (Skeptical Essays, U. of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 13)  If true, this would explain why the problems of philosophy have not been solved.  But "the rational minds among us are not inclined to give up the struggle, while the rest…

  • Reason and Rationalization

    Reason in us is so weak that we often cannot tell what is reason and what rationalization.

  • Sam Harris on Rational Mysticism and Whether the Self is an Illusion

    London Karl brings to my attention an article by Sam Harris touching upon themes dear to my heart. Harris is an impressive fellow, an excellent public speaker, a crusader of sorts who has some important and true things to say, but who is sometimes out beyond his depth, like many public intellectuals who make bold…

  • Fiscal Irresponsibility as Politically Rational: The Fiscal Prisoners’ Dilemma

    Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, Regaining America's Balance. Excerpt: There are two paths toward reducing deficits and debts of the magnitude we face: raising taxes or cutting spending. A balanced compromise would involve some amount of both, but the two political parties face strong electoral incentives to do neither. If Republicans push for reduced spending,…

  • What is Reason? How Did it Arise? Nagel and Non-Intentional Teleology

    This is the sixth in a series of posts, collected here, on Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos (Oxford 2012).  In my last post I suggested that Nagel needs a principle of plenitude in order to explain the actual existence, as opposed to the mere possibility, of rational organisms.  But maybe not, maybe teleology will turn the…

  • Why Can’t Reason Be a Fluke? Intelligibility and the Existence of Rational Animals

    This is the fifth in a series of posts, collected here, on Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos.  The question that concerns me in this entry is whether we can forge a link between the intelligibility of nature and the existence of rational beings.  For Nagel, the existence of rational animals is not a brute fact…

  • Can Reason Be Understood Naturalistically? More Notes on Nagel

    This is the third in a series of posts on Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos (Oxford 2012).  The first is an overview, and the second addresses Nagel's reason for rejecting theism.  This post will comment on some of the content in Chapter 4, "Cognition." In Chapter 4,  Nagel tackles the topic of reason, both theoretical and…

  • The Pragmatic and the Evidential: Is It Ever Rational to Believe Beyond the Evidence?

    Is it ever rational to believe something for which one has insufficient evidence? If it is never rational to believe something for which one has insufficient evidence, then presumably it is also never rational to act upon such a belief. For example, if it irrational to believe in God and post-mortem survival, then presumably it…

  • More on Asserting and Arguing

    James Anderson comments astutely via e-mail: I have a worry about your post Asserting and Arguing. You seem to affirm all of the following: (1) An assertion is a mere assertion unless argued.(2) Mere assertions are gratuitous.(3) The premises of arguments are assertions.(4) One cannot argue for every premise of every argument. This is an…

  • On Taking Principles to Extremes

    That a principle can be taken to an extreme is no argument against the principle so taken.  It is rather an argument against extremism.  The principle that one has the right to keep and bear arms, for example, is not refuted by the fact that some will take it to mean  that one has the…

  • The Paradox of the Preface and the Law of Non-Contradiction

    Suppose an author exercises due diligence in the researching and writing of a nonfiction book. He has good reason to believe that all of the statements he makes in the book are true. But he is also well aware of human fallibility and that he is no exception to the rule. And so, aware of…

  • Cigarettes, Rationality, and Hitchens

    Let's talk about cigarettes. Suppose you smoke one pack per day. Is that irrational? I hope all will agree that no one who is concerned to be optimally healthy as long as possible should smoke 20 cigarettes a day, let alone 80 like Rod Serling who died at age 50 on the operating table. But…

  • Against Irrationalism

    The problem is not that we conceptualize things, but that we conceptualize them wrongly, hastily, superficially. The problem is not that we draw distinctions, but that we draw too few distinctions or   improper distinctions. Perhaps in the end one must learn to trace all distinctions back to the ONE whence they spring; but that is…

  • Justifying ‘No Problem of Philosophy is Soluble’

    Earlier, I presented the following antilogism: 1. All genuine problems are soluble.2. No problem of philosophy is soluble.3. Some problems of philosophy are genuine. I claimed that "(2) is a good induction based on two and one half millenia of philosophical experience." The inductive inference, which I am claiming is good, is not merely from 'No…

  • Two Kinds of Critical Caution

    One person fears loss of contact with reality and is willing to take doxastic risks and believe beyond what he can claim strictly to know. The other, standing firm on the autonomy of human reason, refuses to accept anything that cannot be justified from within his own subjectivity. He fears error, and finds the first…