Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T08:00:31.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Human reasoning includes a mental logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

David P. O'Brien
David P. O'Brien
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, NY 10010. david_obrien@baruch.cuny.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Oaksford & Chater (O&C) have rejected logic in favor of probability theory for reasons that are irrelevant to mental-logic theory, because mental-logic theory differs from standard logic in significant ways. Similar to O&C, mental-logic theory rejects the use of the material conditional and deals with the completeness problem by limiting the scope of its procedures to local sets of propositions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 96 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Braine, M. D. S. (1990) The natural logic approach to reasoning. In: Reasoning, necessity, and logic: Developmental perspectives, ed. Overton, W. F.. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Braine, M. D. S. & O'Brien, D. P. (1991) A theory of if: A lexical entry, reasoning program, and pragmatic principles. Psychological Review 98:182–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braine, M. D. S. & O'Brien, D. P., eds. (1998) Mental logic. Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kneale, W. & Kneale, M. (1962) The development of logic. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Oaksford, M. & Chater, N. (2003a) Conditional probability and the cognitive science of conditional reasoning. Mind and Language 18:359–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oaksford, M. & Chater, N. (2007) Bayesian rationality: The probabilistic approach to human reasoning. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, D. P. (1993) Mental logic and irrationality: We can put a man on the moon, so why can't we solve those logical reasoning problems? In: Rationality: Psychological and philosophical perspectives, ed. Manktelow, K. I. & Over, D. E.. Routledge.Google Scholar
O'Brien, D. P. (2004) Mental-logic theory: What it proposes, and reasons to take this proposal seriously. In: The nature of reasoning, ed. Leighton, J. & Sternberg, R. J., pp. 205–33. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Brien, D. P. & Manfrinati, A. (in press) The mental logic theory of conditional propositions. In: The psychology of conditionals, ed. Oaksford, M. & Chater, N.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rosser, J. B. (1939) An informal exposition of proofs of Gödel's theorem and Church's theorem. Journal of Symbolic Logic 4:53–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar