Description:
This book offers new insights into the nature of human rational capacities by engaging inferentialism with empirical research in the cognitive sciences.
Review Quotes:
"This important book succeeds admirably in its principal aim: opening the conversation between normative inferentialist ideas from philosophy and some of the best current empirical work on the discursive abilities of creatures like us. The result is substantial reciprocal illumination of the ideas emerging from each." - Robert Brandom, University of Pittsburgh, USA
"Many animals think, but humans assess evidence. How did such an ability emerge? Koreň articulates and defends the proposal that it was aided by social practices of giving and asking for reasons. In doing so, he advances the larger philosophical project of inferentialism--a core idea of which is that human reasoning is distinctively social and discursive--by bringing it into close and extended conversation with some of the best empirical work on the evolution of cognition. He also shows how inferentialism helps refine our interpretations of this work, getting us closer to the truth. Koreň writes with unusual clarity about these intriguing but difficult issues, making it easier for the rest of us to get to the truth with him." - Chauncey Maher, Dickinson College, USA