Tag: Dan Sperber


Wikipedia Entry: Dan Sperber

Dan Sperber (born 20 June 1942 in Cagnes-sur-Mer) is a French social and cognitive scientist, anthropologist and philosopher. His most influential work has been in the fields of cognitive anthropology, linguistic pragmatics, psychology of reasoning, and philosophy of the social sciences. He has developed: an approach to cultural evolution known as the epidemiology of representations or cultural attraction theory as part of a naturalistic reconceptualization of the social; (with British philosopher and linguist Deirdre Wilson) relevance theory; (with French psychologist Hugo Mercier) the argumentative theory of reasoning. Sperber formerly Directeur de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique is Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at the Central European University in Budapest.

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The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding by Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercier (2018)

In this book, The Enigma of Reason, Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber argue that reason is not geared to solitary use, to arriving at better beliefs and decisions on our own. Reason, we are told, is what makes us human, the source of our knowledge and wisdom. If reason is so valuable, why didn’t it … Continue reading The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding by Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercier (2018)

Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber (2010)

Abstract Reasoning is generally seen as a means to improve knowledge and make better decisions. However, much evidence shows that reasoning often leads to epistemic distortions and poor decisions. This suggests that the function of reasoning should be rethought. Our hypothesis is that the function of reasoning is argumentative. It is to devise and evaluate … Continue reading Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber (2010)

Two Interesting Theories of Reason Social reasoning and the narrative paradigm

Gurteen Knowledge Blog   April 1, 2022, 11:59. I have been working in the Knowledge Management field for over twenty years, and I am still amazed when I stumble over theories and ideas I should have learned about years ago. Last year, I uncovered The Argumentive Theory of Human Reasoning – a theory proposed by Dan Sperber and … Continue reading Two Interesting Theories of Reason Social reasoning and the narrative paradigm

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The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason We did not evolve to reason individually but to reason socially

Knowledge and Information ** The Knowledge Delusion Close Pop-up all posts in this chapter What’s the Vibe? Please be patient as this may take up to a minute to load… Close The argumentative theory of reasoning proposes that reason did not evolve to help us to reason individually but to reason together – in other … Continue reading The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason We did not evolve to reason individually but to reason socially