Abstract

Are there trans-cultural standards of rationality? Standards strong enough to enable one to decide whether the Azande belief in witches, while conceded to be false, is irrational as well? Of the ten papers here all but one specially written for this volume, nine or perhaps 8 1/2 answer the question in the affirmative, with varying degrees of conviction. Designed as "part of a flourishing debate," the volume is offered as a sequel to an earlier collection of papers, Rationality, edited by Bryan Wilson. Three of the papers are by the anthropologists Dan Sperber, Robin Horton, and Ernest Gellner.