Paradoxes of irrationality
Cambridge University Press eBooksPublished 25 November 1982
Donald A. Davidson
Citations431
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Abstract
The idea of an irrational action, belief, intention, inference or emotion is paradoxical. For the irrational is not merely the nonrational, which lies outside the ambit of the rational; irrationality is a failure within the house of reason. When Hobbes says only man has 'the privilege of absurdity' he suggests that only a rational creature can be irrational. Irrationality is a mental process or state – a rational process or state – gone wrong. How can this be?
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Arts and Humanities