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Single Idea 2450

[filed under theme 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 5. Rationality / a. Rationality ]

Full Idea

Mentalism isn't gratuitous; you need it to explain rationality. Mental causation buys you behaviours that are unlike reflexes in at least three ways: they're autonomous, they're productive, and they're experimental.

Gist of Idea

Rationality has mental properties - autonomy, productivity, experiment

Source

Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §4)

Book Ref

Fodor,Jerry A.: 'The Elm and the Expert' [MIT 1995], p.89

A Reaction

He makes his three ways sound all-or-nothing, which is (I believe) the single biggest danger when thinking about the mind. "Either you are conscious, or you are not..."

The 28 ideas with the same theme [general capacity for reason and logic]:

4326 Aristotle gives a superior account of rationality, because he allows emotions to participate [Hursthouse on Aristotle]
23265 The rational part of the soul is the desire for truth, understanding and recollection [Galen]
7650 All thought is feeling, and rationality is the sensitive soul contemplating reasoning [La Mettrie]
8687 Kantian 'intuition' is the bridge between pure reason and its application to sense experiences [Kant, by Friend]
19451 When absorbed in deep reflection, is your reason in control, or is it you? [Feuerbach]
19248 Reasoning involves observation, experiment, and habituation [Peirce]
24081 Most of our intellectual activity is unconscious [Nietzsche]
7171 Rationality is a scheme we cannot cast away [Nietzsche]
22650 How can the ground of rationality be itself rational? [James]
5369 It is rational to believe in reality, despite the lack of demonstrative reasons for it [Russell]
3967 Absence of all rationality would be absence of thought [Davidson]
6951 Ordinary rationality is conservative, starting from where your beliefs currently are [Harman]
22662 In the instrumental view of rationality it only concerns means, and not ends [Nozick]
22663 Rationality is normally said to concern either giving reasons, or reliability [Nozick]
22666 Is it rational to believe a truth which leads to permanent misery? [Nozick]
22667 Rationality needs some self-consciousness, to also evaluate how we acquired our reasons [Nozick]
2450 Rationality has mental properties - autonomy, productivity, experiment [Fodor]
12174 Only rational beings are attentive without motive or concern [Scruton]
23743 Capturing all the common sense facts about rationality is almost impossible [Smith,M]
4765 Stich accepts eliminativism (labelled 'pragmatism') about rationality and normativity [Stich, by Engel]
4629 Consistency is the cornerstone of rationality [Baggini /Fosl]
11047 Hegelian holistic rationality is the capacity to seek coherence [Hanna]
11048 Humean Instrumental rationality is the capacity to seek contingent truths [Hanna]
11046 Kantian principled rationality is recognition of a priori universal truths [Hanna]
11067 Rational animals have a normative concept of necessity [Hanna]
11068 One tradition says talking is the essence of rationality; the other says the essence is logic [Hanna]
20990 Rationality is conformity to reasons that can be sustained even after scrutiny [Sen]
16419 No one has yet devised a rationality test [New Sci.]