Razones Para Actuar. Una Teoría del Libre Albedrío (Colección Jovellanos de Ensayo nº 21)

There is a classical model of rational action that has dominated Western intellectual culture and, at least back to Aristotle, according to which deliberation is always about means and never about ends. Its natural extension is reflected in both Hume's claim that "Reason is and ought to be a slave of the passions", as in the appreciation of Kant that "Whoever wants the end wants the means." Today, this tradition receives its most sophisticated formulation in the mathematical theory of the decision. This book challenges such a model indicating how free will or possession of a language are basic elements in giving an account of our rational decision making. According to the view presented here, rationality is a biological phenomenon and, therefore, universal. But if this is so, so popular thesis that rationality is relative to a culture turns out to be illusory.