Rationality and IntelligenceWhat is intelligence? Can it be increased by teaching? If so, how, and what difference would an increase make? Before we can answer these questions, we need to clarify them. Jonathan Baron argues that when we do so we find that intelligence has much to do with rational thinking, and that the skills involved in rational thinking are in fact teachable, at least to some extent. Rationality and Intelligence develops and justifies a prescriptive theory of rational thinking in terms of utility theory and the theory of rational life plans. The prescriptive theory, buttressed by other assumptions, suggests that people generally think too little and in a way that is insufficiently critical of the initial possibilities that occur to them. However these biases can be - and sometimes are - corrected by education. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Rational choices and plans | 50 |
Utility theory as a descriptive model | 67 |
Is conformity to utility theory required? | 75 |
a decisiontheoretic analysis | 130 |
Conditions of effective thinking | 168 |
Effects of rational thinking on the individual and society | 206 |
The teaching of rational thinking | 244 |
280 | |
297 | |
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Common terms and phrases
ability answer argue argument assume axioms Baron behavior belief bias biases capacities chapter child choice choose concerned confirmation bias consider consistent correct correlations cost course cues decisions discuss domains effect effort error evaluate example expected utility expected value experiment fact factor analysis factors failure favored g factor gamble given goals heuristics hypothesis idealized creature illusory correlation impulsiveness individual differences intelligence involved IQ tests irrational Kahneman key fields kind knowledge learning measure Meichenbaum methods moral normative model one's optimal outcome Pac-Man parameters person prescriptive model present theory primary memory principle prior probabilities probability problem prospect theory question rational thinking reason reflective thinking relevant require result retrieval rule rules of inference schema schemata search for evidence search for possibilities seems simply situations solving sort specific speed strategy student subepisode subgoals suggest tasks teaching thinker tion tradition utility theory