Hugo Mercier is a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, working in the Cognitive Science Institute Marc Jeannerod in Lyon. Dan Sperber is a researcher in the departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at the Central European University, Budapest, and in the Institut Jean Nicod at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris.
'Filled with lively stories and vivid examples (involving ants, monsters, mosquitoes and dust bunnies, as well as paltry humans) ... its central thesis is sharp and convincing ... the argumentative theory of reason makes sense of human irrationality. * Times Literary Supplement * Elegant and compelling ... Mercier and Sperber delight in turning conventional wisdom on its head ... A timely and necessary book * Financial Times * Timely ... an antidote to the dual-process models behind Kahneman's famous Thinking, Fast and Slow. We need a faith in reason, and this book provides strong arguments that such faith is reasonable * Times Higher Education * Reason is more likely to confirm things that we want to be true, or which we already believe. So why does it exist? This new book provides the answer * Prospect *