ABSTRACT
Drawing on the work of Roy Harris, the chapter argues that conventional “Aristotelean” conceptions of rationality are both ethnocentric and segregational. Ethnocentric because rationality, as traditionally conceived in the Western academy, is a product of highly literate culture, resulting from scriptist attitudes to language. Segregational because rationality has come to be divorced from our doings in the world, resulting in a failure to demonstrate how rationality connects with, and meets the demands of, daily social activity. The work of Steven Pinker provides a recent and influential example of the conception of rationality critiqued by Harris. The chapter goes on to illustrate how Pinker fails to answer Gilbert Ryle’s objections to the separation of intelligent thought from practical activity. The result is a narrow, culturally inflected view of rationality that privileges particular (Western, literate) modes of thought and ways of thinking about human activity. The chapter finishes with a brief indication of what shape an integrational, reintegrated conception of rationality may take.
