Rationality Reconsidered

Ortega y Gasset and Wittgenstein on Knowledge, Belief, and Practice

Astrid Wagner, José María Ariso, Astrid Wagner, José María Ariso

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9783110441994
• eBook ISBN: 9783110454413
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Epistemology in Philosophy

This volume treats the topic of rationality developing a perspective that integrates elements of philosophy of language, phenomenology, pragmatism, and philosophy of life.

The two reference authors, Wittgenstein and Ortega, are contemporaries but come from different philosophical traditions. Wittgenstein's early work was influenced by logical positivism. Later he developed an influential approach to philosophy of language. Ortega was influenced by Neo-Kantianism, perspectivism, life philosophy, and phenomenology. On this basis, he developed an independent approach that has become known as ratiovitalism.

Astonishing affinities between their respective reflections on rationality motivated the experiment of bringing the different approaches into a synergetic relation. Both investigate the structures and limits of rationality, emphasize the importance of basic beliefs, and criticize the restriction of rationality concepts to the intellectual sphere.

The contributions of the volume focus on: dynamics of belief and knowledge, implicit and explicit knowledge, the concept of "vital reason", the role of world-pictures and forms of life, questions regarding certainty, ignorance, doubt, and madness, as well as matters of pluralism and relativism.

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• On Constraining Rationality and Revisiting the Logic of Beliefs: An Introduction
• Part 1: The Problem of Rationality
• Part 2: Rationality, Pluralism, and Relativism
• Part 3: Belief and Knowledge
• Part 4: Limits of Rationality
• Notes on contributors
• Author Index
• Subject Index