Meaning and Relevance

Dan Sperber

Deirdre Wilson

Cambridge University Press

<p>How do we understand what we are told, resolve ambiguities, appreciate metaphor and irony, and grasp both explicit and implicit content in verbal communication? This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to an exciting new field in which models of language and meaning are tested and compared using techniques from psycholinguistics.</p>

Experimental Pragmatics (Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Language and Cognition)

Politics & Social Sciences

Ira A. Noveck

Philosophy

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding

Reason, we are told, is what makes us human, the source of our knowledge and wisdom. If reason is so useful, why didn't it also evolve in other animals? If reason is that reliable, why do we produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense? In their groundbreaking account of the evolution and workings of reason, Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber set out to solve this double enigma. Reason, they argue with a compelling mix of real-life and experimental evidence, is not geared to solitary use, to arriving at better beliefs and decisions on our own. What reason does, rather, is help us justify our beliefs and actions to others, convince them through argumentation, and evaluate the justifications and arguments that others address to us. In other words, reason helps humans better exploit their uniquely rich social environment. This interactionist interpretation explains why reason may have evolved and how it fits with other cognitive mechanisms. It makes sense of strengths and weaknesses that have long puzzled philosophers and psychologists-why reason is biased in favor of what we already believe, why it may lead to terrible ideas and yet is indispensable to spreading good ones.

Self-Help

Hugo Mercier

Personal Transformation

Allen Lane.

Qu'est-ce que le structuralisme? 3. Le Structuralisme en Anthropologie

HACHETTE BNF

Translated from original French by Alice L. Morton. This is an outline of the general theory of symbolism. The author argues against the prevailing "semiological" conception of symbols, the idea that symbols have meanings in much the way that words do.Sperber gives a cognitive account of symbolism by which symbols represent knowledge, but knowledge which is distinct from "encyclopedic knowledge".

Rethinking Symbolism

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dan Sperber. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dan Sperber