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Repeatedly and successfully, the celebrated Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick has reached out to a broad audience beyond the confines of his discipline, addressing ethical and social problems that matter to every thoughtful person. Here Nozick continues his search for the connections between philosophy and "ordinary" experience. In the lively and accessible style that his readers have come to expect, he offers a bold theory of rationality, the one characteristic deemed to fix humanity's "specialness." What are principles for? asks Nozick. We could act simply on whim, or maximize our self-interest and recommend that others do the same. As Nozick explores rationality of decision and rationality of belief, he shows how principles actually function in our day-to-day thinking and in our efforts to live peacefully and productively with each other.
Throughout, the book combines daring speculations with detailed investigations to portray the nature and status of rationality and the essential role that imagination plays in this singular human aptitude.
The award-winning author of Anarchy, State, and Utopia continues his search for the connections between philosophy and "ordinary" experience and shows how principles function in our day-to-day thinking and in our efforts to live peacefully and productively with each other.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I
How to Do Things with Principles
3
Intellectual Functions
3
Interpersonal Functions
9
Personal Functions
12
Overcoming Temptation
14
Sunk Costs
21
Symbolic Utility
26
Teleological Devices
35
II
Decision-Value
41
Newcomb's Problem
41
Prisoner's Dilemma
50
Finer Distinctions: Consequences and Goals
59
III
Rational Belief
64
Cognitive Goals
67
Responsiveness to Reasons
71
Rules of Rationality
75
Belief
93
Bias
100
IV
Evolutionary Reasons
107
Reasons and Facts
107
Fitness and Function
114
Rationality's Function
119
V
Instrumental Rationality and Its Limits
133
Is Instrumental Rationality Enough?
133
Rational Preferences
139
Testability, Interpretation, and Conditionalization
151
Philosophical Heuristics
163
Rationality's Imagination
172
Notes
183
Subject Index
219
Index of Names
224
Overview
Repeatedly and successfully, the celebrated Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick has reached out to a broad audience beyond the confines of his discipline, addressing ethical and social problems that matter to every thoughtful person. Here Nozick continues his search for the connections between philosophy and "ordinary" experience. In the lively and accessible style that his readers have come to expect, he offers a bold theory of rationality, the one characteristic deemed to fix humanity's "specialness." What are ...