The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding, by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber

Mercier and Sperber fail to mention a very simple but major factor in what they are dealing with - in order to communicate an idea one has assemble one's thoughts into a reasonably cohesive and logical order. This is the very simple notion behind talking a problem over with someone. You might be surprised at how often it leads to a solution even when the other person knows little about the subject and makes little contribution, and it's all because the person doing the communicating had to order their thoughts. Order your own thoughts or listen to someone else's ordered thoughts and reasoning becomes so much easier.

there's no rule saying only one card can be turned, so turn them all.

The book quotes the Wason experiment differently (or it's a different version of the test). (The following is quoted verbatim from the book.) "In front of you are four cards," the experimenter tells you. "Each card has a letter [not "a vowel"] on one side and a number on the other. Two cards (with an E and a K) have the letter side up [this is pictured in the book with a graphic] have the letter side up; and two others (with a 2 and a 7) have the number side up." "Your task is to answer the following question: Which of these four cards *must* be turned over to find out whether the following rule is true or false of these four cards: 'If there is an E on one side of a card, then there is a 2 on the other side.' Which cards would you select?" -- Dr Brian Robinson, Milton Keynes, UK

Being a dedicated researcher on Faculty of Reason for 2-3 decades, my ideas on Reason is there at blogger links: http://thesparkleofhumanreason.blogspot.in/2011/01/part-b.html?m=1 and https://isreasonasenseorgan.blogspot.in/2013/09/is-reason-internal-sense-organ-super.html?m=1 and at my self published book at Amazon, link of which is there at the above links, I would like to say, in Sperber&Mercier's work on Reason, the difference between Reason, Reasoning and Logic was not clearly clarified. While Logic and Reasoning are comparable as processes, Reason is an internal faculty very similar to a sense organ. In Logic and Reading, it is this sense organ role of Reason that 'senses' the order, consistency or simply the SENSE factor in arguments. The vital 'order' factor between arguments or evidence presented and the conclusion is always 'sensed' by our faculty of Reason. I appeal to the authors to read my work and share their values comments for enriching mankind's insight into this important field!