Rationality as a Sociological Category, Free from Evaluation

2018

The paper approaches the problem of rationality on the basis of the theory of action elaborated in Parsons ’ The Structure of Social Action of 1937. The voluntaristic action frame of reference, as it was called, implies the opportunity of choice in the course of actions. Predictability of the consequences of a course of action, as a prerequisite of choice, requires rational empirical knowledge and logical consistency. Choices are also dependent on norms and values, as well as on affective meanings, the balancing of which requires complex calculations of costs and advantages or utilities. Appreciation of rational knowledge implies – and depends upon – a commitment to norms of rationality. The limits of rationality are set by irrationality in the sense of deviance from normative standards, but also by non-rational and non-logical factors such as tradition, religion, or art. The work of Pareto is taken as an important reference point as it is acknowledged to be “the most ambitious atte...

2014

In contemporary philosophy and social science the features of rationality play a new significant role in the theory of mind, language, action, decision theory and in questions of cross cultural understanding. The approaches do not conceive of rationality as a subjective a priori principle of reasoning; they present a different attitude towards questions of conceptualizing rationality, and this is a first step towards contextualized understanding of rationality. We can only grasp what rationality means in this way. Rationality is not given but is rather a result of our conceptualizing and a matter of contextualization and this is also a question of rationalization of means for our personal and our collective goals. The reader presents an outline on contemporary orientations about the subject of understanding "rationality" along the main topics in philosophy, theory of language, and social science. Topics are radical interpretation, naturalized epistemology and normativity; intentions and the social aspects of rationality; and concepts of explanation, justification and reality.

Revue européenne des sciences sociales, 2020

2018

This book contributes to the developing dialogue between cognitive science and social sciences. It focuses on a central issue in both fields, i.e. the nature and the limitations of the rationality of beliefs and action. The development of cognitive science is one of the most important and fascinating intellectual advances of recent decades, and social scientists are paying increasing attention to the findings of this new branch of science that forces us to consider many classical issues related to epistemology and philosophy of action in a new light. Analysis of the concept of rationality is a leitmotiv in the history of the social sciences and has involved endless disputes. Since it is difficult to give a precise definition of this concept, and there is a lack of agreement about its meaning, it is possible to say that there is a ‘mystery of rationality’. What is it to be rational? Is rationality merely instrumental or does it also involve the endorsement of values, i.e. the choice of goals? Should we consider rationality to be a normative principle or a descriptive one? Can rationality be only Cartesian or can it also be argumentative? Is rationality a conscious skill or a partly tacit one? This book, which has been written by an outstanding collection of authors, including both philosophers and social scientists, tries to make a useful contribution to the debates on these problems and shed some light on the mystery of rationality. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field.

International Journal of …, 2007

This paper analyses the problem of unidirectional causal explanations in conceptions of rationality. First, three classical conceptions in social science are presented: the cultural-ideological conception, the formal logical conception and the theory of games. Second, the problem of the consistency between beliefs and decisions is discussed with regard to expectancy-value models. We consider that social psychology's approaches to rational choice are framed within methodological individualism. The model of social representations offers the possibility to analyze in depth the relations between the macro and micro processes playing a role in rational choice. It helps us to embed rational choice in a more social context.

2018

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International Journal of Philosophy, 2014

In social science, the wider epistemological debates regarding polarizing perspectives of rationality (explanation through deterministic approach) and interpretive understanding (understanding through non-physical human mind) in explaining or making sense of lifeworld or social system have been critically examined in this paper. In doing so, this article explores Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action (rationality in socially depended situation) and psychological (strategic action) Game Theory (a deterministic model for rational choice) and, hence, identifies an intriguing link between instrumental/mechanistic and non-instrumental issues regarding rationality concept.