Rational Mind

Scott Sturgeon presents an original account of mental states and their dynamics. He develops a detailed story of coarse- and fine-grained mental states a novel perspective on how they fit together an engaging theory of the rational transitions between them and a fresh view of how formal methods can advance our understanding in this area. In doing so he addresses a deep four-way divide in literature on epistemic rationality. Formal epistemology is done in specialized languages--often seeming a lot more like mathematics than Plato--and so can alienate philosophers who are drawn to more traditional work on thought experiments in epistemic rationality. Conversely informal epistemology appears to be a lot more like Plato than mathematics and as such it tends to deter philosophers drawn to formal models of the phenomena. Similarly the epistemology of coarse-grained states boils down everything to a discussion of rational belief--making the area appear a lot more like foundations of knowledge than anything useful for the theory rational decision such as decision-making under uncertainty. <em>The Rational Mind</em> unifies work in all of these areas for the first time.<br>