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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: Reason

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Recognition of Reason » Read Now
by Edward Pols. 258 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...University EDWARD POLS THE RECOGNITION OF REASON FOREWORD BY George Kimball Plochmann...customarily suggested by them. The Recognition of Reason implies a criticism of the...
2.

Reason and Goodness » Read Now
by Brand Blanshard. 454 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...Philosophy EDITED BY H. D. LEWIS REASON AND GOODNESS by the same author THE NATURE OF THOUGHT REASON AND ANALYSIS MUIRHEAD LIBRARY OF PHILOSOPHY...original editor. H. D...
3.

Ethics and Practical Reason » Read Now
by Garrett Cullity, Berys Gaut. 424 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

These thirteen new, specially written essays by a distinguished international line-up of contributors, including some leading contemporary moral philosophers, give a rich and varied view of current work on ethics and practical reason. The three main perspectives on the topic, Kantian, Humean, and...
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These thirteen new, specially written essays by a distinguished international line-up of contributors, including some leading contemporary moral philosophers, give a rich and varied view of current work on ethics and practical reason. The three main perspectives on the topic, Kantian, Humean, and Aristotelian, are all well represented. Issues covered include: the connection between reason and motivation; the source of moral reasons and their relation to reasons of self-interest; the relation of practical reason to value, to freedom, to responsibility, and to feelings. The editors' introduction provides a valuable introductory survey of the topic, putting the individual essays in context. Ethics and Practical Reason will be essential reading for scholars, postgraduates, and upper-level undergraduates working in this area.
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4.

Free Public Reason: Making it up as We Go » Read Now
by Fred D'Agostino. 206 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Free Public Reason examines the idea of public justification, stressing its importance but also questioning the coherence of the concept itself. Although public justification is employed in the work of theorists such as John Rawls, Jeremy Waldron, Thomas Nagel, and others, it has received little...
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Free Public Reason examines the idea of public justification, stressing its importance but also questioning the coherence of the concept itself. Although public justification is employed in the work of theorists such as John Rawls, Jeremy Waldron, Thomas Nagel, and others, it has received little attention on its own as a philosophical concept. In this book Fred D'Agostino shows that the concept is composed of various values, interests, and notions of the good, and that no ranking of these is possible. The notion of public justification itself is thus shown to be contestable. In demonstrating this, D'Agostino undermines many current political theories that rely on this concept. Having broken down the foundations of public justification, D'Agostino then offers an alternative model of how a workable consensus on its meaning might be reached through the interactions of a community of interpreters or delegates at a constitutional convention.
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5.

Reason and Democracy » Read Now
by Thomas A. Spragens. 282 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Reason and Democracy Reason and Democracy Thomas A. Spragens Jr. Duke University Press...Preface ix Introduction 1 One Reason, Rational Practice, and Political Theory: The...
6.

Reason and Existenz: Five Lectures » Read Now
by Karl Jaspers. 181 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library
7.

Freedom within Reason » Read Now
by Susan Wolf. 164 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library

Philosophers typically see the issue of free will and determinism in terms of a debate between two standard positions. Incompatibilism holds that freedom and responsibility require causal and metaphysical independence from the impersonal forces of nature. According to compatibilism, people are free...
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Philosophers typically see the issue of free will and determinism in terms of a debate between two standard positions. Incompatibilism holds that freedom and responsibility require causal and metaphysical independence from the impersonal forces of nature. According to compatibilism, people are free and responsible as long as their actions are governed by their desires. In Freedom Within Reason, Susan Wolf charts a path between these traditional positions: We are not free and responsible, she argues, for actions that are governed by desires that we cannot help having. But the wish to form our own desires from nothing is both futile and arbitrary. Some of the forces beyond our control are friends to freedom rather than enemies of it: they endow us with faculties of reason, perception, and imagination, and provide us with the data by which we come to see and appreciate the world for what it is. The independence we want, Wolf argues, is not independence from the world, but independence from forces that prevent or preclude us from choosing how to live in light of a sufficient appreciation of the world. The freedom we want is a freedom within reason and the world.
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8.

Critique of Pure Reason » Read Now
by Immanuel Kant. 1030 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library
9.

Kant's Theory of Knowledge: An Outline of One Central Argument in the Critique of Pure Reason » Read Now
by Graham Bird. 212 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...Central Argument in the Critique of Pure Reason by Graham Bird Lecturer in Logic...central argument in the Critique of Pure Reason . It is not an elementary or...
10.

The Reasonable and the Moral, in Social Theory and Practice » Read Now
by Thaddeus Metz. 25 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...an individual that provides a positive reason for action. An impersonal value also grounds a positive reason for action, but not insofar as it affects...reasonably reject a...
11.

From Kant to Schelling: Counter-Enlightenment in the Name of Reason, in The Review of Metaphysics » Read Now
by Damon Linker. 41 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...Schelling: Counter-enlightenment in the name of reason. by Damon Linker ... a system in which reason fulfilled itself would have to unite all...the strictest understanding...
12.

Reason, Passion, and Politics in Rousseau, in Polity » Read Now
by Cheryl Hall. 20 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...Reason, passion, and politics in Rousseau * by Cheryl Hall In a collection of essays...been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates...
13.

The Oxford Handbook of Rationality » Read Now
by Alfred R. Mele, Piers Rawling. 477 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Rationality has long been a central topic in philosophy, crossing standard divisions and categories. It continues to attract much attention in published research and teaching by philosophers as well as scholars in other disciplines, including economics, psychology, and law. The Oxford Handbook of...
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Rationality has long been a central topic in philosophy, crossing standard divisions and categories. It continues to attract much attention in published research and teaching by philosophers as well as scholars in other disciplines, including economics, psychology, and law. The Oxford Handbook of Rationality is an indispensable reference to the current state of play in this vital and interdisciplinary area of study. Twenty-two newly commissioned chapters by a roster of distinguished philosophers provide an overview of the prominent views on rationality, with each author also developing a unique and distinctive argument.
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14.

Walking the Tightrope of Reason: The Precarious Life of a Rational Animal » Read Now
by Robert Fogelin. 203 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Human beings are both supremely rational and deeply superstitious, capable of believing just about anything and of questioning just about everything. Indeed, just as our reason demands that we know the truth, our skepticism leads to doubts we can ever really do so. In Walking the Tightrope of...
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Human beings are both supremely rational and deeply superstitious, capable of believing just about anything and of questioning just about everything. Indeed, just as our reason demands that we know the truth, our skepticism leads to doubts we can ever really do so. In Walking the Tightrope of Reason, Robert J. Fogelin guides readers through a contradiction that lies at the very heart of philosophical inquiry. Fogelin argues that our rational faculties insist on a purely rational account of the universe, yet at the same time, the inherent limitations of these faculties ensure that we will never fully satisfy that demand. As a result of being driven to this point of paradox, we either comfort ourselves with what Kant called "metaphysical illusions" or adopt a stance of radical skepticism. No middle ground seems possible and, as Fogelin shows, skepticism, even though a healthy dose of it is essential for living a rational life, "has an inherent tendency to become unlimited in its scope, with the result that the edifice of rationality is destroyed." In much Postmodernist thought, for example, skepticism takes the extreme form of absolute relativism, denying the basis for any value distinctions and treating all truth-claims as equally groundless. How reason avoids disgracing itself, walking a fine line between dogmatic belief and self-defeating doubt, is the question Fogelin seeks to answer. Reflecting upon the ancient Greek skeptics as well as such thinkers as Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and Whitman, this book takes readers into--and through--some of philosophy's most troubling paradoxes.
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