Rational Reconstructions

Rational reconstructions aim to construct or reconstruct the content of a text—as opposed to the intentions of the author—in a clear and consistent manner. As such, every philosopher, scientist, historian, and layperson employs rational reconstructions. For instance, almost every scholarly paper includes a customized account of what others have said or written on the given subject. Rational reconstructions typically involve clarifications and disambiguations, frequently translate the source text into a new language, and occasionally even rectify inconsistent or otherwise problematic elements of the source text. These and various other imports of rationality yield a wide variety of different rational reconstructions. For the sake of methodological rigor and intellectual honesty, we suggest (1) reflecting on the adequacy of a rational reconstruction for its intended purpose and (2) being explicit about the specific imports of rationality undertaken. We explain the bad reputation of “rational reconstructions” with reference to the erroneous identification of all rational reconstructions with some very specific, once-popular types of rational reconstructions that have fallen out of vogue, such as Stegmüller’s structuralist formalizations of scientific research programs.