The Formation of Reason

In The Formation of Reason, David Bakhurst expounds and defends a socio–historical account of the human mind. Inspired by the work of the influential philosopher John McDowell, Bakhurst maintains that the distinctive character of human psychological powers resides in our responsiveness to reasons, a capacity that develops in children as they are initiated into traditions of thinking and reasoning. In this process of formation (or Bildung), children enter ′the space of reasons′ to become rational agents in self–conscious control of their thoughts and actions. In addition to exploring McDowell′s ideas, Bakhurst draws on a variety of thinkers – including Davidson, Hacking, Ilyenkov, Strawson, Vygotsky, Wiggins, and Wittgenstein – to illuminate questions of personhood, identity, learning, rationality, and freedom. Offering an intellectually stimulating exploration of the conceptual foundations of the philosophy of education, The Formation of Reason breathes fresh life into a familiar but controversial idea: that the end of education is the cultivation of autonomy.

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Author s Preface

1. What Can Philosophy Tell Us About How History Made the Mind?

What Role for Philosophy?

Wittgenstein and Davidson

Wittgenstein and Davidson Contrasted

McDowell

The Idea of Bildung

Understanding the Bildungsprozess

The Conceptual and the Practical

Conclusion

2. Social Constructionism

Social Constructionism Introduced

The Social Construction of Reality

Why Bother About Global Constructionism?

Against Global Constructionism

Matters Political

The Social Construction of Mental States

Why Mental States Are Not Socially Constructed

The Social Construction of Psychological Categories

Conclusion

3. Self and Other

Problems of Self and Other

The Problem of Self and Other in One s Own Person

Strawson on Persons

Wiggins on Persons and Human Nature

The Significance of Second Nature

Further Positives

Conclusion: Two Cautionary Notes

4. Freedom, Reflection and the Sources of Normativity

McDowell on Judgement

Owens s Critique

Defending Intellectual Freedom

Freedom and the Sources of Normativity

Sources of Normativity I: Practical Reasoning

Sources of Normativity II: Theoretical Reasoning

A McDowellian Response

Conclusion

5. Exploring the Space of Reasons

McDowell on the Space of Reasons

Brandom sInferentialism

Ilyenkov on the Ideal

Conclusion

6. Reason and Its Limits: Music, Mood and Education

An Initial Response

The Challenge Reconfigured

Passivity Within Spontaneity

Mood

Mood, Salience and Shape

Music

Education

Conclusion

7. Education Makes Us What We Are

A Residual Individualism

Vygotsky s Legacy

Reconciling Vygotsky and McDowell

Personalism

Final Thoughts on Education

References

Index

David Bakhurst is the John and Ella G. Charlton Professor of Philosophy at Queen′s University, Kingston, Canada. He is the author of Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy (1991) and co–editor (with Christine Sypnowich) of The Social Self (1995) and (with Stuart Shanker) of Jerome Bruner: Language, Culture, Self (2001).