Apprehension: Reason in the Absence of Rules (Ashgate Epistemology & Mind) (Ashgate Epistemology & Mind) (Ashgate Epistemology & Mind)

This book introduces and explores the role of apprehension in reasoning - setting out the problems, determining the vocabulary, fixing the boundaries, and questioning what is often taken for granted. Lynn Holt argues that a robust conception of rationality must include intellectual virtues which cannot be reduced to a set of rules for reasoners, and argues that the virtue of apprehension, an acquired disposition to see things correctly, is required if rationality is to be defensible. Drawing on an Aristotelian conception of intellectual virtue and examples from the sciences, Holt shows why impersonal standards for rationality are misguided, why foundations for knowledge are the last elements to emerge from inquiry not the first, and why intuition is a poor substitute for virtue. By placing the current scene in historical perspective, Holt displays the current impasse as the inevitable outcome of the replacement of intellectual virtue with method in the early modern philosophical imagination. Written in an engaging and jargon-free style, this book is of interest to a wide range of readers, particularly epistemologists and philosophers of science concerned with the fate of reason.

the Author, Who Is Affiliated With Mississippi State University, States That In This Book She Will Provide A Conception Of Reason In Which Reason Is Primarily Apprehensive, Secondarily Discursive And Calculative. She Argues That Apprehension Is The Primary Virtue Of The Intellect. After A Beginning Chapter On The Aristotelian Background To Her Views On Practical Reasoning, Theoretical Reasoning, And The Intellectual Virtues, She Discusses Apprehension And The Apprehensive Virtues, The Epistemic Role Of Apprehension, The Rationality Of Scientific Discovery And Experiment, And Objectivity And Truth. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, Or

1. Introduction......Page 2 2. The Aristotelian Background: Practical Reasoning, Theoretical Reasoning, and the Intellectual Virtues......Page 7 3. Apprehension and the Apprehensive Virtues......Page 26 4. The Epistemic Role of Apprehension......Page 50 5. The Rationality of Scientific Discovery and Experiment......Page 77 6. Objectivity and Truth......Page 99 Index......Page 114