ABSTRACT
So far I have said little positive about Reason, the Intellect or the Understanding, about thought, judgment, inference or conception. Indeed, what little I have said has largely been of a deflationary tendency, since I have repeatedly argued against the common assumption that the use of such epithets as ‘purposive’, ‘skilful’, ‘careful’, ‘ambitious’ and ‘voluntary’ entails, as a causal pre-requisite, the occurrence of cogitative or theorising operations. I have probably left the impression that since planning and theorising operations can themselves be characterised as purposive, skilful, careful, ambitious, voluntary and the rest, I regard these operations merely as special occupations on all fours with such occupations as tying knots following tunes or playing hide-and-seek.
