Academic

Download of the Week

By Lawrence Solum

The Download of the Week is Salience Reasoning by Gerald J. Postema.  Here is the abstract:

The thesis of this essay is that social conventions of the kind Lewis modeled are generated and maintained by a form of practical reasoning which is essentially common. This thesis is defended indirectly by arguing for an interpretation of the role of salience in Lewis's account of conventions. The remarkable ability of people to identify salient options and appreciate their practical significance in contexts of social interaction, it is argued, is best explained in terms of their exercise of what I call "salience reasoning," a form of common practical reasoning. The more widely accepted understanding of salience competence, the "natural salience" understanding, fails as an interpretation of the notion at work in Lewis and Schelling (on whom Lewis relied) and is inadequate as an explanation of salience competence.

And from the paper:

salience detection does not depend merely on observation; it depends on reasoning. Salience reasoning is not only reasoning from salience detected, but also reasoning to that which is salient. It is reasoning that works out what is salient and its practical significance or force. The natural salience hypothesis treats salience detection as a matter of reasoning, as well, but it limits the repertoire of salience reasoners to inductive reasoning. It is blind to the imaginative and creative dimension of reasoning, which Schelling thought were important components of salience competency. This dimension involves techniques fundamental to all forms of reasoning: distinguishing figure from ground, filtering out distractions, identifying patterns, fitting clues together into a coherent whole. We might broadly characterize this as ?analogical thinking.? Analogical thinking is not always explicit or discursive, but it is capable of being disciplined and rational.

Highly recommended.  Download it while its hot!

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on May 10, 2008 (boomark / email).