The Architecture of Reason: The Structure and Substance of Rationality

The Architecture of Reason: The Structure and Substance of Rationality
Robert Audi | 2001-03-22 00:00:00 | Oxford University Press, USA | 304 | Philosophy
The literature on theoretical reason has been dominated by epistemological concerns, treatments of practical reason by ethical concerns. This book overcomes the limitations of dealing with each separately. It sets out a comprehensive theory of rationality applicable to both practical and theoretical reason. In both domains, Audi explains how experience grounds rationality, delineates the structure of central elements, and attacks the egocentric conception of rationality. He establishes the rationality of altruism and thereby supports major moral principles. The concluding part describes the pluralism and relativity his conception of rationality accommodates and, taking the unified account of theoretical and practical rationality in that light, constructs a theory of global rationality--the overall rationality of persons. Rich in narrative examples, intriguing analogies, and intuitively appealing arguments, this beautifully crafted book will spur advances in ethics and epistemology as well in philosophy of mind and action and the theory of rationality itself.
Reviews
"The Architecture of Reason" is a well-respected work that is somewhat unique in the current philosophic literature. Most works on rationality focus on one of two aspects - (a) epistemology and theoretical reason, concerned with justification and its connection to knowledge, or (b) practical reason, largely the subject matter of meta-ethics and moral psychology. Perhaps because of the different natures of the two fields, and the divergence in the literature, relatively few authors write with an appreciation for both.



Robert Audi, who moved from Nebraska to take the Business Ethics chair at Notre Dame shortly after writing this book, is one of the few philosophers with a deep understanding of both fields and the fascinating connections between them. This is a work dedicated to exploring the structural parallels between the theoretical and practical spheres of reason, how they are similar, and how they are different. Audi advocates an internalist view, based in what he calls a moderate, flexible foundationalism.



The work is divided into eight chapters, each roughly 30 pages in length. Chapters 1-2 provide an overview of Audi's view of theoretical reason, while chapters 3-6 detail the structural parallels between theoretical reason and practical reason, as well as the basis of concepts such as reasonableness and altruism. Chapter 7 provides an extremely insightful and detailed discussion of relativity in various forms (a concept to often bandied about without precision, even in philosophy). Chapter 8 concludes with a discussion of the global characteristics of a rational person, and how rationality can be viewed as something like a virtue concept.



All in all, this is a detailed and well-argued work that can act as an advanced introduction to the topics (especially for those with some background in philosophy, but perhaps only a light background in epistemology), but also is an important original contribution in its own right. It is also the only major work dedicated to a holistic treatment of both sides of rationality in contemporary philosophy, to my knowledge.
Reviews
I am a philosophical layman, but I am skeptical about the customer review of this book. (seller) gives you a look at the back cover. Read for yourself what other philosophers say about Audi's book.
Reviews
Having taken the better part of this last semester reading this book, I find myself with no strong inclination to rate this book in any particular direction.
As far as content goes it's rather thorough, Audi does manage to give a complete bottom up view of rationality. But, as he gets into the later stages of the book where the topic turns to ethical issues he gets a little presumptuous. Another issue I had was with Audi's homemade words. I recognize the fact that certain areas of philosophy have created their own technical nomenclature but some of his words are a bit of a stretch even for my liberal mind. Further, while not as hard to read as many other philosophy texts this was by no means a pleasure read, and if it had not been required reading I would have opted for more pleasurable tasks such as watching paint dry.
If you have a background in philosophy or epistemology (or are disposed to masochistic habits) I suggest you buy this book. After all, Audi does pull together his entire theory of rationality into one book, and this is no easy feat for anyone. But for those of you unaccustomed to technical, poorly written (for most philosophers, not to point a finger solely at Audi) philosophy texts, I say find an easier to read introductory book somewhere else.

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