ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a general theory of critical rationalism by expanding the general separation between justification and criticism from the theory of knowledge to the theory of rationality. The central aim of this new theory of rationality is to use the idea of knowledge as unfalsified conjecture for addressing the question of how a claim of rationality that is held open to criticism can logically be judged as a true claim. Chapter 5 argues that it is the non-justificationist theory of knowledge that provides the epistemological basis for answering the question of rational belief. This chapter concludes with a new concept of critical reason that enables exploration of how people enter into a dialogue in order to reach an agreement on the common values necessary for a peaceful and just social order. In brief, I propose a new understanding of critical thinking to allow the theory of society to explain social order and its change.
