Department of Philosophy
ONLINE JOINT SEMINAR
The University of Hong Kong
Lingnan University
National University of Singapore
Jack Woods
University of Leads
The Arbitrariness of Instrumental Rationality
Zoom link:
https://lingnan.zoom.us/j/91761022322
Abstract:
Structural requirements of rationality call out for explanation. I argue here that naturalistic explanations of these requirements face a difficult challenge. The most natural explanations of them take them to be related directly to the function of rationality, but the function of rationality can be well served by different, mutually incompatible, sets of requirements. Moreover, the requirements which most directly fit the function of rationality aren’t the ones which are most intuitive; they are rather exactly the sort of cases that seem negotiable. I suggest a way out for the naturalist by letting the functional role of rationality be a regulative ideal of rationality—a standard against which sets of requirements are judged to be good or bad—but not a constitutive ideal. This package is able to explain structural requirements of rationality without running into the explanatory challenge.
Thursday
26 November 2020
4:30-6:15 pm
For inquiries:
Amit Chaturvedi
amitc@hku.hk