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Man the Rational Animal

Questions and Arguments

Edo Pivčević

We share the capacity for knowledge with animals, but it is the nature and the scope of what we may rationally believe that makes us human. Yet what kind of beliefs do qualify as ‘rational’? This challenging and refreshingly innovative book addresses certain fundamental questions concerning rational legitimacy of some widely held beliefs and provides argument-based answers to such questions, while at the same time encouraging the reader to actively engage with the views put forward and form his/her own judgement. The book is typically discursive rather than simply informative, and introduces philosophy by doing it.

University Press of America

Pages: 204 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-7618-6792-0 • Hardback • June 2016 • $77.00 • (£59.00)

978-0-7618-7200-9 • Paperback • December 2019 • $46.99 • (£36.00)

978-0-7618-6793-7 • eBook • June 2016 • $44.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Metaphysics, Philosophy / General, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Logic, Philosophy / Movements / Rationalism

Man the Rational Animal

Questions and Arguments

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

We share the capacity for knowledge with animals, but it is the nature and the scope of what we may rationally believe that makes us human. Yet what kind of beliefs do qualify as ‘rational’? This challenging and refreshingly innovative book addresses certain fundamental questions concerning rational legitimacy of some widely held beliefs and provides argument-based answers to such questions, while at the same time encouraging the reader to actively engage with the views put forward and form his/her own judgement. The book is typically discursive rather than simply informative, and introduces philosophy by doing it.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 204 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-7618-6792-0 • Hardback • June 2016 • $77.00 • (£59.00)

978-0-7618-7200-9 • Paperback • December 2019 • $46.99 • (£36.00)

978-0-7618-6793-7 • eBook • June 2016 • $44.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Metaphysics, Philosophy / General, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Logic, Philosophy / Movements / Rationalism

Author

The author has taught Philosophy for many years at the University of Bristol (UK), as well as periodically as a Visiting Professor in Germany, the United States and China. The author's previous books include Husserl and Phenomenology, The Concept of Reality, Change and Selves, What is truth? and The Reason Why.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note
Introduction
1. What Can We Know and What May We Rationally Believe?
2. What Are the Necessary and What Are the Sufficient Conditions of Rational Belief?
3. Can It Ever Be Truly Rational to Believe a Falsehood?
4. Does Natural Science Set a Norm for What Can Be Rationally Believed?
5. Is the Belief in Creation Ex Nihilo a Rationally Sustainable Belief?
6. What Rational Justification Might There Be for Acting Morally?
7. Is the Existence of Rational Beings Merely a Fortuitous By-Product of Natural Selection?
Index

Man the Rational Animal

Questions and Arguments

Edo Pivčević

Man the Rational Animal

Questions and Arguments

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