One Reason; Multiple Rationalities

Abstract

This chapter examines the rise of ‘multiple situated rationalities’—the idea that different cultures and academic disciplines develop distinct understandings of what is ‘reasonable’, reflecting their specific contexts and tasks. Rationality is now seen as historically and culturally embedded, so that what thinkers in one context regard as ‘reasonable’ will not find agreement in other contexts. The emergence of this realization is documented carefully and critically, focussing on the collapse of the Enlightenment’s idea of a single universal reason, and the implications of this collapse for human thinking about rationality and reasonableness. Particular attention is paid to the criteria of rationality, and the use of exemplars of rationality—such as ‘the wise’.