Epistemic Rationality and Epistemic Normativity

Epistemic Rationality and Epistemic Normativity PDF Author: Patrick Bondy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315412519
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
The aim of this book is to answer two important questions about the issue of normativity in epistemology: Why are epistemic reasons evidential and what makes epistemic reasons and rationality normative? Bondy's argument proceeds on the assumption that epistemic rationality goes hand in hand with basing beliefs on good evidence. The opening chapters defend a mental-state ontology of reasons, a deflationary account of how kinds of reasons are distinguished, and a deliberative guidance constraint on normative reasons. They also argue in favor of doxastic voluntarism—the view that beliefs are subject to our direct voluntary control—and embrace the controversial view that voluntarism bears directly on the question of what kinds of things count as reasons for believing. The final three chapters of the book feature a noteworthy critique of the instrumental conception of the nature of epistemic rationality, as well as a defense of the instrumental normativity of epistemic rationality. The final chapter defends the view that epistemic reasons and rationality are normative for us when we have normative reason to get to the truth with respect to some proposition, and it provides a response to the swamping problem for monistic accounts of value.

Epistemic Rationality and Epistemic Normativity

Epistemic Rationality and Epistemic Normativity PDF Author: Patrick Bondy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315412519
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Get Book Here

Book Description
The aim of this book is to answer two important questions about the issue of normativity in epistemology: Why are epistemic reasons evidential and what makes epistemic reasons and rationality normative? Bondy's argument proceeds on the assumption that epistemic rationality goes hand in hand with basing beliefs on good evidence. The opening chapters defend a mental-state ontology of reasons, a deflationary account of how kinds of reasons are distinguished, and a deliberative guidance constraint on normative reasons. They also argue in favor of doxastic voluntarism—the view that beliefs are subject to our direct voluntary control—and embrace the controversial view that voluntarism bears directly on the question of what kinds of things count as reasons for believing. The final three chapters of the book feature a noteworthy critique of the instrumental conception of the nature of epistemic rationality, as well as a defense of the instrumental normativity of epistemic rationality. The final chapter defends the view that epistemic reasons and rationality are normative for us when we have normative reason to get to the truth with respect to some proposition, and it provides a response to the swamping problem for monistic accounts of value.

The Normativity of Rationality

The Normativity of Rationality PDF Author: Benjamin Kiesewetter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198754280
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Benjamin Kiesewetter defends the normativity of rationality by presenting a new solution to the problems that arise from the common assumption that we ought to be rational. Drawing on an extensive and careful assessment of the problems discussed in the literature, Kiesewetter provides a detailed defence of a reason-response conception of rationality, a novel, evidence-relative account of reasons, and an explanation of structural irrationality in terms of theseaccounts.

On the Normativity of Epistemic Rationality

On the Normativity of Epistemic Rationality PDF Author: Kurt Ludwig Sylvan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Knowledge, Theory of
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
Many epistemologists equate the rational and the justified. Those who disagree have done little to explain the difference, leading their opponents to suspect that the distinction is an ad hoc one designed to block counterexamples. The first aim of this dissertation--pursued in the first three chapters--is to improve this situation by providing a detailed, independently motivated account of the distinction. The account is unusual in being inspired by no particular theoretical tradition in epistemology, but rather by ideas in the meta-ethical literature on reasons and rationality. The account is also unusual in proposing that the distinction between rationality and justification can be derived from a reasons-based account of justification. Historically, this is a striking claim. In epistemology, reasons-based accounts of justification are standardly treated as paradigmatically internalist accounts, but this dissertation argues that we should believe the reverse: given the best views about reasons--again drawn from meta-ethics--we should expect reasons-based accounts of justification to be strongly externalist. The first half of the dissertation might leave one wondering why rationality matters from the epistemic point of view. The second aim of the dissertation is to answer this question. The final two chapters argue (1) that we can only explain why rationality matters from the epistemic point of view if we reject the nearly universal assumption that all derivative epistemic value is instrumental value, and (2) that there are powerful reasons to reject this assumption, since it is the true origin of the so-called "swamping problem". It is then argued that if we reject the instrumentalist assumption, we can get a truth-oriented account of epistemic value that provides a unified explanation of how rationality, justification, and knowledge matter from the epistemic point of view. This result is unprecedented: while some epistemologists find room for both internalist and externalist species of epistemic value, virtually all assume that these properties cannot have a common evaluative ground, and especially not a common truth-oriented one. The concluding moral of the dissertation is that once we properly understand what it is to be truth-oriented, we see that this common assumption is mistaken.

The Normativity of Epistemic Rationality

The Normativity of Epistemic Rationality PDF Author: Marc-Kevin Daoust
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This thesis argues that epistemic rationality is normative, or that agents ought to be epistemically rational. The property of rationality is here understood as a code. Specifically, the code of epistemic rationality requires various things, such as responding correctly to epistemic reasons one has, remaining coherent and avoiding akratic combinations of beliefs. Additionally, this thesis has secondary aims, such as: (i) arguing that apparent epistemic reasons to believe P (understood as apparently true propositions which, if they were true, would count in favour of the conclusion that P) are deontically significant; (ii) arguing against unsolvable normative dilemmas of epistemic rationality; (iii) arguing against a specific type of permissiveness which roughly states that, relative to a body of epistemic reasons, it can be epistemically rational for an ideal agent to believe P and to disbelieve P. While these secondary aims are interesting in their own right, they confirm the main claim of this thesis, namely, that epistemic rationality is normative.

Normativity

Normativity PDF Author: Conor McHugh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198758707
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
What should I do? What should I think? Traditionally, ethicists tackle the first question, while epistemologists tackle the second. This volume is innovative in drawing together issues from epistemology and ethics and in exploring neglected connections between epistemic and practical normativity.

The Ethics of Belief and Beyond

The Ethics of Belief and Beyond PDF Author: Sebastian Schmidt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000062007
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This volume provides a framework for approaching and understanding mental normativity. It presents cutting-edge research on the ethics of belief as well as innovative research beyond the normativity of belief—and towards an ethics of mind. By moving beyond traditional issues of epistemology the contributors discuss the most current ideas revolving around rationality, responsibility, and normativity. The book’s chapters are divided into two main parts. Part I discusses contemporary issues surrounding the normativity of belief. The essays here cover topics such as control over belief and its implication for the ethics of belief, the role of the epistemic community for the possibility of epistemic normativity, responsibility for believing, doxastic partiality in friendship, the structure and content of epistemic norms, and the norms for suspension of judgment. In Part II the focus shifts from the practical dimensions of belief to the normativity and rationality of other mental states—especially blame, passing thoughts, fantasies, decisions, and emotions. These essays illustrate how we might approach an ethics of mind by focusing not only on belief, but also more generally on debates about responsibility and rationality, as well as on normative questions concerning other mental states or attitudes. The Ethics of Belief and Beyond paves the way towards an ethics of mind by building on and contributing to recent philosophical discussions in the ethics of belief and the normativity of other mental phenomena. It will be of interest to upper-level students and researchers working in epistemology, ethics, philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, and moral psychology.

The Normativity of Rationality

The Normativity of Rationality PDF Author: Benjamin Kiesewetter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192528491
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
Sometimes our intentions and beliefs exhibit a structure that proves us to be irrational. The Normativity of Rationality is concerned with the question of whether we ought to avoid such irrationality. Benjamin Kiesewetter defends the normativity of rationality by presenting a new solution to the problems that arise from the common assumption that we ought to be rational. The argument touches upon many other topics in the theory of normativity, such as the form and the content of rational requirements, the preconditions of criticism, and the function of reasons in deliberation and advice. Drawing on an extensive and careful assessment of the problems discussed in the literature, Kiesewetter provides a detailed defence of a reason-response conception of rationality, a novel, evidence-relative account of reasons, and an explanation of structural irrationality in terms of these accounts.

Instrumental Rationality

Instrumental Rationality PDF Author: John Brunero
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191063940
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Rationality requires that we intend the means that we believe are necessary for achieving our ends. Instrumental Rationality explores the formulation and status of this requirement of means-ends coherence. In particular, it is concerned with understanding what means-ends coherence requires of us as believers and agents, and why. Means-ends coherence is a genuine requirement of rationality and cannot be explained away as a myth, confused with a disjunction of requirements to have, or not have, specific attitudes. Nor is means-ends coherence strongly normative, such that we always ought to be means-ends coherent. A promising strategy for assessing why this requirement should exist is to consider the constitutive aim of intention. Just as belief has a constitutive aim (truth) that can explain some of the theoretical requirements of consistency and coherence governing beliefs, intention has a constitutive aim (here called "controlled action") that can explain some of the requirements of consistency and coherence governing intentions. We can therefore better understand means-ends coherence by understanding the constitutive aims of both of the attitudes governed by the requirement, intention, and belief.

Reason Without Freedom

Reason Without Freedom PDF Author: David Owens
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134593287
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
We call beliefs reasonable or unreasonable, justified or unjustified. What does this imply about belief? Does this imply that we are responsible for our beliefs and that we should be blamed for our unreasonable convictions? Or does it imply that we are in control of our beliefs and that what we believe is up to us? Reason Without Freedom argues that the major problems of epistemology have their roots in concerns about our control over and responsibility for belief. David Owens focuses on the arguments of Descartes, Locke and Hume - the founders of epistemology - and presents a critical discussion of the current trends in contemporary epistemology. He proposes that the problems we confront today - scepticism, the analysis of knowlege, and debates on epistemic justification - can be tackled only once we have understood the moral psychology of belief. This can be resolved when we realise that our responsibility for beliefs is profoundly different from our rationality and agency, and that memory and testimony can preserve justified belief without preserving the evidence which might be used to justify it. Reason Without Freedom should be of value to those interested in contemporary epistemology, philosophy of mind and action, ethics, and the history of 17th and 18th century.

Spheres of Reason

Spheres of Reason PDF Author: Simon Robertson
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191610216
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Spheres of Reason comprises nine original essays on the philosophy of normativity, written by a combination of internationally renowned and up-and-coming philosophers working at the forefront of the topic. On one broad construal the normative sphere concerns norms, requirements, oughts, reasons, reasoning, rationality, justification, value. These notions play a central role in both everyday thought and philosophical enquiry; but there remains considerable disagreement about how to understand normativity — its nature, metaphysical and epistemological bases — and how different aspects of normative thought connect to one another. As well as exploring traditional and ongoing issues central to our understanding of normativity — especially those concerning reasons, reasoning and rationality — the volume's essays develop new approaches to and perspectives in the field. Notably, they make a timely and distinctive contribution to normativity as it features across each of the practical, epistemic and affective regions of thought, including the important issue of how normativity as it applies to action, belief and feeling may (or may not) be connected. In doing so, the essays engage topics within the philosophy of mind and action, epistemology, normative ethics and metaethics. With an editor's introduction providing a comprehensive and accessible background to the subject, Spheres of Reason is essential reading to anyone interested in the nature of normativity and the bearing it has on human thought.