Cognitive Institutions: The Cultural Context of Reasoning

This thesis is intended as a contribution to the social theory of reason. This theory attempts to analyze reason (that is, the standard of rationality) as a social phenomenon, rather than, as in classical views of reason (e.g., those of Plato and Descartes) as an abstract regulative idea, universally known to all men, perhaps through a faculty of rational intuition. Insofar as the social theory of reason treats reason as a social phenomenon consisting in part of techniques and rules learned in particular social milieus, it resembles the sociology of knowledge. However, the social theory of reason does not treat reason as a mere sociological object having no regulative force on the theorist himself. Rather, reason is treated as a necessary structuring element of knowing, which constitutes the individual as a knowing self, and is therefore both necesssary for and regulative of all thought, including that of the social theorist. Reason is both social and regulative.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Paden, Roger Kenneth

• Philosophy

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8203546

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71552