Rationality and reasoning /

Evans and Over's book is an interesting collaboration between an experimental psychologist and a philosopher with a common interest in the topic of rationality. Not surprisingly, a collaboration of this sort leads to observations and theoretical conjectures that neither author would likely have developed alone. A key distinction, followed throughout, is that between two kinds of rationality. Rationality (1) is thinking or reasoning used to attain one's goals; in contrast, rationality (2) represents thinking or reasoning employed in accord with a normative theory, such as the rules of formal logic. Most philosophers and psychologists have studied only rationality (2), whereas rationality (1) covers the forms of thinking that most persons utilize in most of their pursuits. The distinction between the two forms of rationality enables the authors to provide an interesting view on research in psychology, portraying the similarities between the two types of thinking as well as their unique domains of application. The book is written to be understandable to a wide range of readers and is quite nicely produced in all particulars. An intriguing monograph on a most important topic. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. K. F. Widaman; University of California, Riverside