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1、BEHAVIORALANDBRAINSCIENCES(2011)34,57–111doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000968Whydohumansreason?ArgumentsforanargumentativetheoryHugoMercierPhilosophy,PoliticsandEconomicsProgram,UniversityofPennsylvania,Philadelphia,PA19104hmercier@sas.upenn.eduhttp://sites.google.com/site/hugomercier/DanSperber
2、JeanNicodInstitute(EHESS-ENS-CNRS),75005Paris,France;DepartmentofPhilosophy,CentralEuropeanUniversity,Budapest,Hungarydan@sperber.frhttp://www.dan.sperber.frAbstract:Reasoningisgenerallyseenasameanstoimproveknowledgeandmakebetterdecisions.However,muchevidenceshowsthatreasoningoftenleadsto
3、epistemicdistortionsandpoordecisions.Thissuggeststhatthefunctionofreasoningshouldberethought.Ourhypothesisisthatthefunctionofreasoningisargumentative.Itistodeviseandevaluateargumentsintendedtopersuade.Reasoningsoconceivedisadaptivegiventheexceptionaldependenceofhumansoncommunicationandthe
4、irvulnerabilitytomisinformation.Awiderangeofevidenceinthepsychologyofreasoninganddecisionmakingcanbereinterpretedandbetterexplainedinthelightofthishypothesis.Poorperformanceinstandardreasoningtasksisexplainedbythelackofargumentativecontext.Whenthesameproblemsareplacedinaproperargumentativ
5、esetting,peopleturnouttobeskilledarguers.Skilledarguers,however,arenotafterthetruthbutafterargumentssupportingtheirviews.Thisexplainsthenotoriousconfirmationbias.Thisbiasisapparentnotonlywhenpeopleareactuallyarguing,butalsowhentheyarereasoningproactivelyfromtheperspectiveofhavingtodefendth
6、eiropinions.Reasoningsomotivatedcandistortevaluationsandattitudesandallowerroneousbeliefstopersist.Proactivelyusedreasoningalsofavorsdecisionsthatareeasytojustifybutnotnecessarilybetter.Inalltheseinstancestraditionallydescribedasfailuresorflaws,reasoningdoesexactlywhatcanbeexpectedofanargu
7、mentativedevice:Lookforargumentsthatsupportagivenconclusion,and,ceterisparibus,favorconclusionsforwhichargumentscanbefound.Keywords:argumentation;confirmationbias;decisionmaking;dualprocesstheory;evolutionarypsychology;motivatedreasoning;reason-basedchoice;reasoningI
