How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind (Hardcover, New)

In the United States at the height of the Cold War, roughly between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, a new project of redefining rationality commanded the attention of sharp minds, powerful politicians, wealthy foundations, and top military brass. Its home was the human sciences - psychology, sociology, political science, and economics, among others - and its participants enlisted in an intellectual campaign to figure out what rationality should mean and how it could be deployed. How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind brings to life the people - Herbert Simon, Oskar Morgenstern, Herman Kahn, Anatol Rapoport, Thomas Schelling, and many others - and places, including the RAND Corporation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Cowles Commission for Research and Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations, that played a key role in putting forth a "Cold War rationality." Decision makers harnessed this picture of rationality - optimizing, formal, algorithmic, and mechanical - in their quest to understand phenomena as diverse as economic transactions, biological evolution, political elections, international relations, and military strategy. The authors chronicle and illuminate what it meant to be rational in the age of nuclear brinkmanship.

General

Imprint:	University of Chicago Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	November 2013
First published:	November 2013
Authors:	Paul Erickson • Judy L. Klein • Lorraine Daston • Rebecca Lemov • Thomas Sturm • Michael Gordin
Dimensions:	235 x 156 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	272
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-226-04663-1
Categories:	Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > History of ideas, intellectual history Books > Humanities > History > American history > General Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > General Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 Books > History > American history > General Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
LSN:	0-226-04663-X
Barcode:	9780226046631

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