How Far Can We Go with Reason?

摘要

Just as its name implies, How We Reason is nominally about how we reason. Its not-so-hidden agenda is actually quite a bit broader: namely, to argue that reasoning can help people lead successful lives and that to the extent that people fail, it is in part because emotions begin to color their reasoning. Beyond establishing the importance of reasoning, Philip Johnson-Laird contends that reasoning can be understood in terms of his theory of mental models—according to which people, in the reasoning process, manipulate abstract mental representations that allow them to reach conclusions.