Reasons and Rationality

Catalog description

What is it to do something for a reason? What is it to believe something for a reason? Reasoning is normative. When we act, we think there are either good or bad reasons for the actions we undertake. To believe something is to believe that it is true or at least reasonably likely to be true. And to rationally believe that a claim is true is for the believed claim to be epistemically justified. But what are good reasons for action and what is it to be rationally justified in a belief? How are good reasons for action and good reasons for belief related? Are there two different notions of good reason at work, or is there a way to think about reasons that unifies these two domains? This course addresses these questions and examines standard forms of both good deductive and inductive reasoning paying special attention to how inductive reasoning can go wrong.