Stephen Toulmin was University Professor and Henry R. Luce Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Southern California and author of, among other books, Cosmopolis and The Uses of Argument.

• Preface 1 Introduction: Rationality and Certainty 2 How Reason Lost Its Balance 3 The Invention of Disciplines 4 Economics, or the Physics That Never Was 5 The Dreams of Rationalism 6 Rethinking Method 7 Practical Reason and the Clinical Arts 8 Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9 The Trouble with Disciplines 10 Redressing the Balance 11 The Varieties of Experience 12 The World of Where and When 13 Postscript: Living with Uncertainty Notes Index

In Return to Reason, Stephen Toulmin sums up a lifetime's work in rescuing the reasonableness of ordinary practices from the oblivion to which they are consigned when we equate reason with abstract theory alone. From the knack of a wordless skill, to the work of really good professionals, he shows us how situated practice is central in real life. His critique applies to Modernism and Postmodernism alike and offers a true guide to those of us perplexed by the theoretical idols of the day.

Stephen Toulmin was University Professor and Henry R. Luce Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Southern California and author of, among other books, Cosmopolis and The Uses of Argument.

• Preface 1 Introduction: Rationality and Certainty 2 How Reason Lost Its Balance 3 The Invention of Disciplines 4 Economics, or the Physics That Never Was 5 The Dreams of Rationalism 6 Rethinking Method 7 Practical Reason and the Clinical Arts 8 Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9 The Trouble with Disciplines 10 Redressing the Balance 11 The Varieties of Experience 12 The World of Where and When 13 Postscript: Living with Uncertainty Notes Index

In Return to Reason, Stephen Toulmin sums up a lifetime's work in rescuing the reasonableness of ordinary practices from the oblivion to which they are consigned when we equate reason with abstract theory alone. From the knack of a wordless skill, to the work of really good professionals, he shows us how situated practice is central in real life. His critique applies to Modernism and Postmodernism alike and offers a true guide to those of us perplexed by the theoretical idols of the day.

Stephen Toulmin was University Professor and Henry R. Luce Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Southern California and author of, among other books, Cosmopolis and The Uses of Argument.

• Preface 1 Introduction: Rationality and Certainty 2 How Reason Lost Its Balance 3 The Invention of Disciplines 4 Economics, or the Physics That Never Was 5 The Dreams of Rationalism 6 Rethinking Method 7 Practical Reason and the Clinical Arts 8 Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9 The Trouble with Disciplines 10 Redressing the Balance 11 The Varieties of Experience 12 The World of Where and When 13 Postscript: Living with Uncertainty Notes Index

In Return to Reason, Stephen Toulmin sums up a lifetime's work in rescuing the reasonableness of ordinary practices from the oblivion to which they are consigned when we equate reason with abstract theory alone. From the knack of a wordless skill, to the work of really good professionals, he shows us how situated practice is central in real life. His critique applies to Modernism and Postmodernism alike and offers a true guide to those of us perplexed by the theoretical idols of the day.