Speculative reason - Wikipedia





	
	

	
	

	Speculative reason

	
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Speculative reason, sometimes called theoretical reason or pure reason, is theoretical (or logical, deductive) thought, as opposed to practical (active, willing) thought. The distinction between the two goes at least as far back as the ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, who distinguished between theory (theoria, or a wide, bird's eye view of a topic, or clear vision of its structure) and practice (praxis), as well as techne.

Speculative reason is contemplative, detached, and certain, whereas practical reason is engaged, involved, active, and dependent upon the specifics of the situation. Speculative reason provides the universal, necessary principles of logic, such as the principle of non-contradiction, which must apply everywhere, regardless of the specifics of the situation. 

On the other hand, practical reason is the power of the mind engaged in deciding what to do. It is also referred to as moral reason, because it involves action, decision, and particulars. Though many other thinkers have erected systems based on the distinction, two important later thinkers who have done so are Aquinas (who follows Aristotle in many respects) and Immanuel Kant.


References[edit]

	Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason [1781/1787], trans. Norman Kemp Smith, N.Y.: St. Martins, 1965.
	Karim Mojtahedi, Kant's Critical Philosophy, Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1999.


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Epistemology

	Epistemologists	
	Thomas Aquinas
	Augustine of Hippo
	William Alston
	Robert Audi
	A. J. Ayer
	George Berkeley
	Laurence BonJour
	Keith DeRose
	René Descartes
	John Dewey
	Fred Dretske
	Edmund Gettier
	Alvin Goldman
	Nelson Goodman
	Paul Grice
	Anil Gupta
	Susan Haack
	David Hume
	Immanuel Kant
	Søren Kierkegaard
	Peter Klein
	Saul Kripke
	Hilary Kornblith
	David Lewis
	John Locke
	G. E. Moore
	John McDowell
	Robert Nozick
	Alvin Plantinga
	Plato
	Duncan Pritchard
	James Pryor
	Hilary Putnam
	W. V. O. Quine
	Thomas Reid
	Bertrand Russell
	Gilbert Ryle
	Wilfrid Sellars
	Susanna Siegel
	Ernest Sosa
	P. F. Strawson
	Baruch Spinoza
	Timothy Williamson
	Ludwig Wittgenstein
	Nicholas Wolterstorff
	Vienna Circle
	more...




	Theories	
	Coherentism
	Constructivism
	Contextualism
	Empiricism
	Evolutionary epistemology
	Fallibilism
	Feminist epistemology
	Fideism
	Foundationalism
	Holism
	Infinitism
	Innatism
	Naïve realism
	Naturalized epistemology
	Phenomenalism
	Positivism
	Rationalism
	Reductionism
	Reliabilism
	Representational realism
	Skepticism
	Transcendental idealism




	Concepts	
	A priori knowledge
	A posteriori knowledge
	Analysis
	Analytic–synthetic distinction
	Belief
	Common sense
	Descriptive knowledge
	Exploratory thought
	Gettier problem
	Induction
	Internalism and externalism
	Justification
	Knowledge
	Objectivity
	Privileged access
	Problem of induction
	Problem of other minds
	Perception
	Procedural knowledge
	Proposition
	Regress argument
	Simplicity
	Speculative reason
	Truth
	more...




	Related articles	
	Outline of epistemology
	Faith and rationality
	Formal epistemology
	Meta-epistemology
	Philosophy of perception
	Philosophy of science
	Social epistemology




	
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Speculative_reason&oldid=923873748"


		Categories: 	Reasoning
	Aristotle
	Concepts in epistemology
	Concepts in logic
	Critical thinking
	Deductive reasoning
	Epistemology
	History of ideas
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	History of philosophy
	Immanuel Kant
	Logic
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		 This page was last edited on 31 October 2019, at 10:14 (UTC).
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