Practical concepts and productive reasoning

Practical Reasoning and Rationality

Practical reasoning and enkrasia

Akrasia has been traditionally defined as a failure to do what one has most reasons to do, or what one judges that one ought to do (McIntyre 2006; Wedgwood 2007). Traditional conceptions on akrasia take it as a violation of a commitment of the agent: “[for traditional conceptions] an agent who decisively judges it best to A is thereby rationally committed to A-ing, in the sense that (as long as...

Practical Tips for More Productive Skin Biopsies

Clinical dermatology in common with family practice is one the last bastions of clinical medicine. Under most circumstances, high standard practice can be accomplished with the assistance of relative simple tools such as a magnifying glass, facilities for Wood's lights examination etc, and 'high tech' though undoubtedly now a fashion is unnecessary for the most of the time. However, even among ...

Knowledge, Practical Reasoning And Action

Is knowledge necessary or sufficient or both necessary and sufficient for acceptable practical reasoning and rational action? Several authors (e.g., Williamson, Hawthorne, and Stanley) have recently argued that the answer to these questions is positive. In this paper I present several objections against this view (both in its basic form as well in more developed forms). I also offer a sketch of...

Normative Practical Reasoning

1. Instrumental reasoning. Aristotle identified practical reasoning as reasoning that concludes in an act, and he was thinking of a non-mental act such as tasting food. But reasoning is a mental process, which takes place in the reasoner's mind. Its conclusion must be a mental state or a mental event; it cannot be a non-mental act. I therefore identify practical reasoning as reasoning that conc...