Rationality without representation

• Main Author: Pérez Carballo, Alejandro
• Other Authors: Robert C. Stalnaker and Stephen Yablo.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2012
• Subjects: Linguistics and Philosophy.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68519

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2011. === Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-109). === This dissertation is about whether and how non-representational attitudes could play a role in our theories of rationality. In Chapter 1 ('Negation, expressivism, and intentionality') I argue that the best explanation for why two mental states are inconsistent need not presuppose that such states are representational-that they have, in the jargon, truth-conditions. I use this to provide a solution to the 'negation problem' for metaethical expressivism. In Chapter 2 ('Structuring logical space') I sketch an account of mathematical practice along non-representational lines. I show how it can do justice to the applicability of mathematics, and propose ways in which one's epistemic goals can impose substantial constraints on which mathematical theories to accept. Chapter 3 ('Good questions') provides a general account of the way in which rationality constrains changes in our hypothesis space. In particular, I show how some such changes can be better than others by placing the discussion within a general framework of rational dynamics, on which rational epistemic change involves maximizing expected epistemic utility. === by Alejandro Perez Carballo. === Ph.D.