This volume treats the topic of rationality developing a perspective that integrates elements of philosophy of language, phenomenology, pragmatism, and philosophy of life. The two reference authors, Wittgenstein and Ortega, are contemporaries but come from different philosophical traditions. Wittgenstein's early work was influenced by logical positivism. Later he developed an influential approach to philosophy of language. Ortega was influenced by Neo-Kantianism, perspectivism, life philosophy, and phenomenology. On this basis, he developed an independent approach that has become known as ratiovitalism. Astonishing affinities between their respective reflections on rationality motivated the experiment of bringing the different approaches into a synergetic relation. Both investigate the structures and limits of rationality, emphasize the importance of basic beliefs, and criticize the restriction of rationality concepts to the intellectual sphere. The contributions of the volume focus on: dynamics of belief and knowledge, implicit and explicit knowledge, the concept of “vital reason”, the role of world-pictures and forms of life, questions regarding certainty, ignorance, doubt, and madness, as well as matters of pluralism and relativism.

This inaugural lecture by Sarah Coakley, delivered at the University of Cambridge on 13th October 2009, considers the striking cultural dominance, in the latter part of the twentieth century, of a violent and negative rendition of the notion of sacrifice. Coakley asks whether it is a coincidence that at the same time, philosophers of religion have tended to be in notable retreat from bold public claims about the rationality of Christian truth. In contrast to this double trend, and in riposte to the 'New Atheism' of the secularists, Coakley argues that the most recent deliveries from evolutionary biology augur a vision of sacrifice which is both rationally defensible and biologically grounded. Evolutionary dynamics, religious practice and hermeneutics, and new arguments for the rationality of belief belong together; and this nexus of themes demands the closest attention as the world confronts the profoundest ecological crisis it has yet known.

Thinking about self-control takes us to the heart of practical decision-making, human agency, motivation, and rational choice. Psychologists, philosophers, and decision theorists have all brought valuable insights and perspectives on how to model self-control, on different mechanisms for achieving and strengthening self-control, and on how self-control fits into the overall cognitive and affective economy. Yet these different literatures have remained relatively insulated from each other. Self-Control, Decision Theory, and Rationality brings them into dialog by focusing on the theme of rationality. It contains eleven newly written essays by a distinguished group of philosophers, psychologists, and decision theorists, together with a substantial introduction, collectively offering state-of-the-art perspectives on the rationality of self-control and the different mechanisms for achieving it.

For almost 2,500 years, the Western concept of what is to be human has been dominated by the idea that the mind is the seat of reason - humans are, almost by definition, the rational animal. In this text a more radical suggestion for explaining these puzzling aspects of human reasoning is put forward.

The essays in this work focus on problems with logic-based approaches to human reasoning, showing how a probablistic approach can provide a more psychologically plausible, computationally viable and philosophically respectable account of human

A Positive Political Theory Primer is designed to introduce students to the application of game theory to modeling political processes. This accessible text covers the essential aspects of game theory while keeping the reader constantly in touch with why political science as a whole would benefit from considering this method. Examining the very phenomena that power political machineries-elections, legislative and committee processes, and international conflict, the book attempts to answer fundamental questions about their nature and function in a clear, accessible manner. Included at the end of each chapter is a set of exercises designed to allow students to practice the construction and analysis of political models. Although the text assumes only an elementary-level training in algebra, students who complete a course around this text will be equipped to read nearly all of the professional literature that makes use of game theoretic analysis. Each chapter also contains suggestions for further reading for those students who wish to broaden their learning and expertise.

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