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Philosophers
Mortimer Adler Rogers Albritton Alexander of Aphrodisias G.E.M.Anscombe Thomas Aquinas Aristotle David Armstrong Augustine A.J.Ayer Mark Balaguer William Belsham Isaiah Berlin Bernard Berofsky Susanne Bobzien George Boole F.H.Bradley C.D.Broad C.A.Campbell Joseph Keim Campbell Carneades Ernst Cassirer Roderick Chisholm Chrysippus Cicero Randolph Clarke Samuel Clarke Donald Davidson Democritus Daniel Dennett René Descartes Richard Double Fred Dretske John Earman Laura Waddell Ekstrom Epictetus Epicurus John Martin Fischer Owen Flanagan Philippa Foot Alfred Fouilleé Harry Frankfurt Richard L. Franklin Carl Ginet Nicholas St. John Green Ian Hacking Ishtiyaque Haji Stuart Hampshire Georg W.F. Hegel Martin Heidegger R.E.Hobart Thomas Hobbes David Hodgson Shadsworth Hodgson Ted Honderich Pamela Huby David Hume William James Robert Kane Immanuel Kant Tomis Kapitan Christine Korsgaard Keith Lehrer Gottfried Leibniz Leucippus C.I.Lewis David Lewis John Locke John R. Lucas Lucretius Hugh McCann Colin McGinn Michael McKenna Alfred Mele John Stuart Mill Dickinson Miller G.E.Moore Thomas Nagel Friedrich Nietzsche P.H.Nowell-Smith Robert Nozick William of Ockham Timothy O'Connor Charles Sanders Peirce Derk Pereboom Steven Pinker Plato Karl Popper H.A.Prichard Willard van Orman Quine Frank Ramsey Ayn Rand Thomas Reid Charles Renouvier Nicholas Rescher Josiah Royce Bertrand Russell Paul Russell Gilbert Ryle T.M.Scanlon Moritz Schlick Arthur Schopenhauer John Searle Henry Sidgwick Walter Sinnott-Armstrong J.J.C.Smart Saul Smilansky Michael Smith Galen Strawson Peter Strawson Eleonore Stump Richard Taylor Kevin Timpe Peter van Inwagen Manuel Vargas John Venn Kadri Vihvelin G.H. von Wright R. Jay Wallace Ted Warfield Roy Weatherford Alfred North Whitehead David Widerker David Wiggins Ludwig Wittgenstein Susan Wolf Scientists Margaret Boden Neils Bohr Ludwig Boltzmann Max Born Stephen Brush Arthur Holly Compton Abraham de Moivre John Eccles Arthur Stanley Eddington Albert Einstein Richard Feynman A.O.Gomes Joshua Greene Jacques Hadamard Martin Heisenberg Werner Heisenberg Pierre-Simon Laplace David Layzer Ernst Mach Henry Margenau James Clerk Maxwell Ernst Mayr Jacques Monod Steven Pinker Max Planck Henri Poincaré Erwin Schrödinger Herbert Simon B. F. Skinner William Thomson (Kelvin) John von Neumann Daniel Wegner Steven Weinberg |
Reason
Reason is almost as vague a term as its Greek cognate "logos." Famously mistranslated as "word," the Greek original and the modern English term agree that a reason is an account or story about the causes behind some phenomenon or event.
There have been many attacks on Reason, especially since the failures of "modern" theology in the Middle Ages (by Islam, Judaism, and the Scholastics in that order) to reason to God, and since the Enlightenment failure to reason to human nature and morality.
On one level, a reasoned argument against Reason would appear to be the same vicious circle that led the ancient skeptics to avoid claiming that all knowledge was relative. On another level, the best arguments will rediscover the virtuous circle, the power of Reason inside Ideal Systems, and the natural limits of Reason alone to account for things in the world.
Since the separation of Science (Natural Philosophy) from Philosophy proper, Reason has come to describe the Scientific Method, with its additions of hypothesis and experimental test to the original sense of Reason as logical and deductive thought. Some thinkers erroneously included inductive thought.
The Problem of Induction arises when repeated patterns of events suggest an explanation in terms of causality. If A has always been followed by B, then it suggests that A causes B. This fails because inductive logic alone can never produce knowledge about the contingent world. The correct view is that an inductive pattern may lead to a hypothesis (a theory), which can be experimentally tested. Note that mathematical induction (really a form of deduction?) is a valid form of reasoning.
The identification of Reason with Science led Immanuel Kant to criticize Reason. The fullness of Newton's theories to account for the motions of the entire universe, especially their implied determinism, were unacceptable to Kant, who wanted to make room for human freedom, values, God, and immortality. Romantics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries went "beyond Reason" to intuition, hermeneutics, to art and the irrational in search of meaning deeper than science alone can provide.
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