Epistemic vs. Instrumental Rationality
While epistemic rationality is about creating the most accurate map of reality, instrumental rationality is about winning at the game of life.
Category: Ideal Rationality
A Rational Renaissance
Rationality training would provide students with specific skills, teaching them how to reason and how to anticipate cognitive bias. Yet, the knowledge of what rationality is maybe culturally more important than the technical knowledge about how to reason.
The Rationality of Induction
Induction is the idea that the past is a guide to the future. We believe the Sun will rise tomorrow because it has risen in the past. Unfortunately, attempts to prove that induction is rational have failed. In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, published in 1748, David Hume wrote: “That …
Socrates must be mortal
All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, Therefore, Socrates must be mortal. This is the classic Socrates syllogism that has been used to illustrate deductive logic for ages. Deductive logic takes general rules and comes up with new specifics. “All men are mortal” is a general rule. That Socrates …