San Antonio College Library

The study of rationality and practical reason, or rationality in action, has been central to Western intellectual culture. In this book, John Searle lays out six claims of what he calls the Classical Model of rationality and shows why they are false. He then presents an alternative theory.

Modern philosophy has obscured key elements of works that distinguished the part of human behaviour that is action from that which is not. Donagan takes those elements and analyses them in terms of defensible semantics on Fregean lines.

"Do you know what economists mean when they refer to you as a "rational agent"? Or why a psychologist might label your idea a "creative insight"? Or how a philosopher could be logical but also passionate in persuading you to obey "moral imperatives"? Or why scientists disagree about the outcomes of experiments comparing drug treatments and disease risk factors? After reading this book, you will be wiser in two ways: You will know how the best and...

Many of the problems of philosophy are of such broad relevance to human concerns, and so complex in their ramifications, that they are, in one form or another, perennially present. Though in the course of time they yield in part to philosophical inquiry, they may need to be rethought by each age in the light of its broader scientific knowledge and deepened ethical and religious experience. Better solutions are found by more refined and rigorous methods....

Links Aquinas's metaphysics and anthropology to his action theory and ethics to illuminate how the moral theory is built on foundations laid elsewhere. The authors emphasize the integration of concepts of virtue, natural law, and divine grace within Aquinas's ethics.--From publisher's description.