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Rationality

About: Rationality is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 20459 publications have been published within this topic receiving 617787 citations.


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Book
01 May 2001
TL;DR: This paper argued that our decision-making capabilities are rational and adaptive, but because our rationality is bounded and our adaptability limited, our actions are not based simply on objective information from our environments.
Abstract: This text draws on work in political science, economics, cognitive science and psychology to offer an innovative theory of how people and organizations adapt to change and why these adaptations do not always work. The author argues that our decision-making capabilities are rational and adaptive, but because our rationality is bounded and our adaptability limited, our actions are not based simply on objective information from our environments. Instead, we overemphasize some factors and neglect others, and our inherited limitations - such as short-term memory capacity - all act to affect our judgement.

375 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A gradual evolution in the formal conception of rationality that brings it closer to our informal conception of intelligence and simultaneously reduces the gap between theory and practice has been discussed in this article, where some directions for future research are indicated.

375 citations

BookDOI
01 Sep 1991
TL;DR: Limited rationality execution architectures for decision procedures metareasoning architecture rational metareASONing application to game playing application to problem solving search learning the value of computation toward limited rational agents.
Abstract: Limited rationality execution architectures for decision procedures metareasoning architecture rational metareasoning application to game playing application to problem solving search learning the value of computation toward limited rational agents.

374 citations

BookDOI
TL;DR: The Myth of the Framework as mentioned in this paper is not a defence of the scientific method, expert knowledge, "Big Science", or the scientific institution, but a defence against fashionable distortions of its aims and ideals.
Abstract: In a literary career spanning 60 years, Sir Karl Popper has made important contributions to the 20th century discussion of science and rationality. In so doing, he has attacked intellectual fashions like positivism which exaggerate what science and rationality have done, and, at the same time, intellectual fashions like relativism which denigrate what science and rationality can do. Popper regards scientific knowledge as one of the greatest and most creative of human achievements. But he regards it, at the same time, as inherently fallible and subject to revision for these reasons, "The Myth of the Framework" is not a defence of the scientific method, expert knowledge, "Big Science", or the scientific institution - but a defence of science and the rational tradition against fashionable distortions of its aims and ideals. The essays in this book discuss such issues as the aims of science, the role that it plays in our civilization, the moral responsibiliby of the scientist, the function of a university, and the perennial choice between reason and revolution. Popper emphasizes that science and rationality are what enable humans to free themselves from prejudices.

372 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Sep 1995
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a distinction between postmodernism and essentialism, arguing that there is not such a thing as "postmodernism" understood as a coherent theoretical approach and that the frequent assimilation between poststructuralism and post-modernism can only lead to confusion.
Abstract: Anglo-American feminists: postmodernism and essentialism. Obviously they are related since the so-called "postmoderns" are also presented as the main critics of essentialism, but it is better to distinguish them since some feminists who are sympathetic to postmodernism have lately come to the defense of essentialism.1 I consider that, in order to clarify the issues that are at stake in that debate, it is necessary to recognize that there is not such a thing as "postmodernism" understood as a coherent theoretical approach and that the frequent assimilation between poststructuralism and postmodernism can only lead to confusion. Which is not to say that we have not been witnessing through the twentieth century a progressive questioning of the dominant form of rationality and of the premises of the modes of thought characteristic of the Enlightenment. But this critique of universalism, humanism, and rationalism has come from many different quarters and it is far from being limited to the authors called "poststructuralists" or "postmodernists." From that point of view, all the innovative currents of this century-Heidegger and the post-Heideggerian philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer, the later Wittgenstein and the philosophy of language inspired by his work, psychoanalysis and the reading of Freud proposed by Lacan, American pragmatism-all have from diverse standpoints criticized the idea of a universal human nature, of a universal canon of rationality through which that human nature could be known as well as the traditional conception of truth. Therefore, if the term "postmodern" indicates such a critique of Enlightenment'suniversalism and rationalism, it must be acknowledged that it refers to the main currents of twentieth-century philosophy and there is no reason to single out poststructuralism as a special target. On the other side, if by "postmodernism" one wants to designate only the very specific form that such a critique takes in authors such as Lyotard and Baudrillard, there is absolutely no justification for putting in that category people like Derrida, Lacan, or Foucault, as has generally been the case. Too often a critique of a specific thesis of Lyotard or Baudrillard leads to sweeping conclusions about "the postmoderns" who by then include all the authors loosely connected with poststructuralism. This type of amalgamation is completely unhelpful when not clearly disingenuous.

371 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023921
20221,963
2021645
2020689
2019682
2018753