Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Return to Reason / Stephen Toulmin.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2009]Copyright date: 2003Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674044425
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 128.33
LOC classification:
  • BC177 ǂb T596 2001eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: Rationality and Certainty -- 2 How Reason Lost Its Balance -- 3 The Invention of Disciplines -- 4 Economics, or the Physics That Never Was -- 5 The Dreams of Rationalism -- 6 Rethinking Method -- 7 Practical Reason and the Clinical Arts -- 8 Ethical Theory and Moral Practice -- 9 The Trouble with Disciplines -- 10 Redressing the Balance -- 11 The Varieties of Experience -- 12 The World of Where and When -- 13 Postscript: Living with Uncertainty -- Notes -- Index
Summary: The turmoil and brutality of the twentieth century have made it increasingly difficult to maintain faith in the ability of reason to fashion a stable and peaceful world. After the ravages of global conflict and a Cold War that divided the world's loyalties, how are we to master our doubts and face the twenty-first century with hope?In Return to Reason, Stephen Toulmin argues that the potential for reason to improve our lives has been hampered by a serious imbalance in our pursuit of knowledge. The centuries-old dominance of rationality, a mathematical mode of reasoning modeled on theory and universal certainties, has diminished the value of reasonableness, a system of humane judgments based on personal experience and practice. To this day, academic disciplines such as economics and professions such as law and medicine often value expert knowledge and abstract models above the testimony of diverse cultures and the practical experience of individuals.Now, at the beginning of a new century, Toulmin sums up a lifetime of distinguished work and issues a powerful call to redress the balance between rationality and reasonableness. His vision does not reject the valuable fruits of science and technology, but requires awareness of the human consequences of our discoveries. Toulmin argues for the need to confront the challenge of an uncertain and unpredictable world, not with inflexible ideologies and abstract theories, but by returning to a more humane and compassionate form of reason, one that accepts the diversity and complexity that is human nature as an essential beginning for all intellectual inquiry.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674044425

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: Rationality and Certainty -- 2 How Reason Lost Its Balance -- 3 The Invention of Disciplines -- 4 Economics, or the Physics That Never Was -- 5 The Dreams of Rationalism -- 6 Rethinking Method -- 7 Practical Reason and the Clinical Arts -- 8 Ethical Theory and Moral Practice -- 9 The Trouble with Disciplines -- 10 Redressing the Balance -- 11 The Varieties of Experience -- 12 The World of Where and When -- 13 Postscript: Living with Uncertainty -- Notes -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The turmoil and brutality of the twentieth century have made it increasingly difficult to maintain faith in the ability of reason to fashion a stable and peaceful world. After the ravages of global conflict and a Cold War that divided the world's loyalties, how are we to master our doubts and face the twenty-first century with hope?In Return to Reason, Stephen Toulmin argues that the potential for reason to improve our lives has been hampered by a serious imbalance in our pursuit of knowledge. The centuries-old dominance of rationality, a mathematical mode of reasoning modeled on theory and universal certainties, has diminished the value of reasonableness, a system of humane judgments based on personal experience and practice. To this day, academic disciplines such as economics and professions such as law and medicine often value expert knowledge and abstract models above the testimony of diverse cultures and the practical experience of individuals.Now, at the beginning of a new century, Toulmin sums up a lifetime of distinguished work and issues a powerful call to redress the balance between rationality and reasonableness. His vision does not reject the valuable fruits of science and technology, but requires awareness of the human consequences of our discoveries. Toulmin argues for the need to confront the challenge of an uncertain and unpredictable world, not with inflexible ideologies and abstract theories, but by returning to a more humane and compassionate form of reason, one that accepts the diversity and complexity that is human nature as an essential beginning for all intellectual inquiry.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Aug 2024)