Conversations on Human Action and Practical Rationality

Susana Cadilha · Carlos Mauro · Sofia Miguens

Jul 2013 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Ebook

175

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Eligible

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About this ebook

This volume brings together leading scholars in the study of practical rationality and human action – namely, Alfred Mele, Hugh McCann, Michael Bratman, George Ainslie, Daniel Hausman and Joshua Knobe. They were interviewed by the editors in a project based at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto structured around the questions: 1) In your view, what are the most central (or important) problems in the philosophy of action? 2) For some or all of the following – action, agency, agent – what do they contrast with most significantly? 3) Which of these are liable to be rational/irrational? 4) In what sense is the thing to do to be decided by what is rational? Are there limits of rationality? 5) What explains action, and how? What is the role of deliberation in rationality? 6) How is akrasia possible (if you think it is)? 7) How do you think your own work has contributed to the field? What are your plans for future research?

The outcome is of great interest, not only for philosophers, but also for economists, psychologists, political scientists and sociologists.

About the author

Carlos Mauro is Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Management of the Portuguese Catholic University, in Porto (FEG-UCP), where he teaches Decision Making, Behavioural Economics and Social Philosophy and Ethics, and Coordinator of the Porto X-Phi Lab. He is the co-founder of MLAG (Mind Language and Action Group), a research group at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto. He has edited four books in Portuguese, two of them on practical rationality and human action. He has recently developed research and published on behavioural economics (the role of emotions in economic decisions) and experimental philosophy (folk conceptions of weakness of the will, dignity and personal identity, and judgments of moral wrongdoing).

Sofia Miguens is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (FLUP). She was a Visiting Scholar at New York University (2000), Institut Jean Nicod – Paris (2007–2008) and the University of Sydney (2013). She has been President of the Portuguese Philosophical Association (2004–2006). She is the founder and principal investigator of MLAG and is author of five books and editor of several others, most recently Consciousness and Subjectivity (Ontos, 2012). She has published widely in Portuguese, English and French on several topics in philosophy of mind and language, epistemology and cognitive science, and the history of 20th century philosophy.

Susana Cadilha is Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Porto and is currently finishing her PhD on metaethics. She is a member of MLAG, the author of several articles on metaethics and philosophy of action, and editor of two books, one of them on ethics and practical rationality.

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