The Nature of Rationality

Acknowledgments Intellectual Functions Interpersonal Functions Personal Functions Overcoming Temptation Sunk Costs Symbolic Utility Teleological Devices IIDecision-Value Newcomb's Problem Prisoner's Dilemma Finer Distinctions: Consequences and Goals IIIRational Belief Cognitive Goals Responsiveness to Reasons Rules of Rationality Belief Bias IVEvolutionary Reasons Reasons and Facts Fitness and Function Rationality's Function VInstrumental Rationality and Its Limits Is Instrumental Rationality Enough? Rational Preferences Testability, Interpretation, and Conditionalization Philosophical Heuristics Rationality's Imagination Notes Subject Index Index of Names

"Robert Nozick's brief, vivid, energetic, intensely personal and enviably clever book attacks head-on the question of what rationality really is."--John Dunn, The Times Higher Education Supplement "Robert Nozick always attacks his problems in a disconcertingly original way... From Mr. Nozick you always expect fireworks... The questions he addresses are fundamental in the true philosophical sense: Why exactly should we want to act and believe rationally? Why should we formulate principles of action and try to stick to them? The questions are not moral but explicatory. He is not out to argue that unprincipled or irrational behavior is immoral; rather, he invites us to consider what we are trying to do, and what the justification for such behavior is... Sure to attract a great deal of interest."--Anthony Gottlieb, The New York Times Book Review "To Nozick, rationality and belief are each an evolutionary adaptation to a world that changes in nonregular ways. Our acts resonate with symbolic meaning and 'stand for' our principles and beliefs. In this boldly original ... inquiry which will reward serious students of philosophy, Nozick uses decision theory to propose new rules of rational decision-making that take into account the symbolic, practical, and evolutionary components of our behavior ... this challenging treatise champions reason as a faculty that enables us to transcend our mere animal status and to strive toward goals by the light of principles."--Publishers Weekly "From Mr. Nozick you always expect fireworks... The questions he addresses are fundamental in the true philosophical sense: Why exactly should we want to act and believe rationally?"--The New York Times Book Review