Alfredo Deaño and the non-accidental transition of thought

Résumé

If the cultural variations concerning knowledge and research on ordinary reasoning are part of cultural history, what kind of historiographical method is needed in order to present the history of its evolution? This paper proposes to introduce the study of theories of reasoning into a historiographic perspective because we assume that the answer to the previous question does not only depend of internal controversies about how reasoning performance is explained by current theories of reasoning. Ordinary reasoning is a historical and cultural phenomenon but it is not clear what kind of historiographic perspective may be coherent (in relation with its research object) or even necessary (in relation with possible laws exhibit by this object of research). It may be possible to understand natural language as a kind of opportunity for calculus. This article argues that this was, at least, the point of view of Alfredo Deaño. We contend that for Deaño, this kind of optimism is not based on the application of classical logic, but on linguistics and on non-classical logics. To justify this, we put forward and describe some or the characteristic findings of Deaño's work relating to ordinary reasoning (e.g., the spontaneous use of reasoning, the political similies in the relationship between logic and philosophy).