Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT Faria’s recent publication aims to show that “if anti-individualism is correct, then the obscurity of validity is more widespread than we need to assume for present purposes.” In rejecting “a variety of exculpating moves, designed to shield the rationality of the possibly unlucky reasoner,” Faria suggests that content externalism can drastically affect our self-understanding as rational beings. I am afraid I have to disagree. Faria overintellectualizes reasoning, always performed from the first-person perspective and is subject to reflexive control by the reasoner. To be sure, content externalism shows that sound reasoning is contingent on the broad environment and therefore does not depend exclusively on the logical abilities of the living being but is a matter of logical luck. Nonetheless, content externalism is no threat to rationality. My diagnosis: By adopting Wittgenstein’s strategy of “bringing words back home,” Faria overlooks the achievements of cognitive science: in its simplest form, “transitive inference,” rationality pervades the animal kingdom.
Source: Kriterion Revista de Filosofia
Author: Roberto Horácio de Sa Pereira
Institution: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404246353