Description
Book SynopsisPractical reasoning is not just a matter of determining how to get what you want, but of working out what to want in the first place. Millgram argues that experience plays a central role in this process. He defends âœpractical induction,â a method of reasoning from experience similar to theoretical induction.
Trade ReviewWritten with panache and vigor, boldly confident in laying out its argumentative strategy, and full of colorful examples, this book gives us a good time while plying us with its central positive theses: that, in order to remain unified agents capable of carrying out any serious plans, we must be able to learn from experience about what is desirable, and that, accordingly, this learning should be counted as a kind of inductive practical inference that plays a legitimate role in our thinking. -- Henry S. Richardson * Ethics *
Elijah Millgram's
Practical Induction is a graceful, tightly-argued essay built around the thought that figuring out what one should seek is intimately related to determining what things matter and why, and that this, in turn, requires learning as one goes along...The argument goes by way of entertaining and thoughtful examples which are both original and given very much in the spirit of the style of practical reasoning Milgram christens
practical induction...The approach is refreshing and the result is a finely-argued good read. The detail of the argument, moreover, gives both substance and the philosophical bite to the point that people learn what matters and why in life through living, and that one hallmark of practical rationality must be letting this wisdom guide action without eroding one's ability to respond to change appropriately. -- Candace Vogler * Mind *
Millgram's argument has as a consequence that psychology is as impotent to predict our responses to new circumstances in the practical sphere as it is to predict the shape of new theories in science--only one, but not the least, of the surprising things one finds oneself thinking about anew when one puts down this very surprising book. -- John Robertson * Philosophical Quarterly *
Millgram argues for an intriguing set of conclusions, and some of the arguments are ingenious. The manuscript is full of fine writing, with richer, more nuanced examples than is usual in philosophical writing. Millgram situates his arguments in a wide range of relevant literature within analytic philosophy. He has a fine mastery of the craft of philosophy, of how to construct arguments. Most of all, he does provide arguments where the philosophers he most closely agrees with too often resort to vague assertion and rhetoric. -- Allan Gibbard, University of Michigan
This is a bold, imaginative, original set of theses and arguments. It is set out with force and elegance. While I find myself with some serious doubts, it is a powerful statement that should be part of current debates. -- Michael Bratman, Stanford University
Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Deciding to Desire 3. Collecting Your Thoughts 4. Doing without Learning 5. When Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll Are Not Enough 6. How to Keep Pleasure in Mind 7. How to Win Friends and Influence People 8. Conclusion References Index
