Rationality and epistemic sophistication / by Franz-Peter Griesmaier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Griesmaier, Franz-Peter, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Knowledge, Theory of.

Belief and doubt.

Physical Description:

xii, 248 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham ; Boulder ; New York ; London : Lexington Books, [2015]

Summary:

What factors determine whether a person's beliefs are epistemically rational? Many traditional accounts contend that those factors lie in the beliefs themselves. For example, a belief can fit with one's evidence, it can originate in reliable (or otherwise virtuous) processes, or it can cohere with other beliefs (some of which may be self-justifying). In this provocative book, Franz-Peter Griesmaier presents a new picture of epistemic rationality, emphasizing the role of the agent rather than the belief. The rationality of an agent's beliefs ultimately depends on her epistemic sophistication, which is manifest in the stringency of her standards, in the skill she has in accessing and evaluating evidence, and in the wisdom she displays in choosing contextually appropriate standards. To be epistemically rational means, in this view, that one discharges one's epistemic duties by using the contextually proper standards for finding and evaluating the available evidence during the process of belief formation. In the course of defending this view, Griesmaier discusses a wide variety of topics from the perspective of a unifying framework. These topics include the possibility of lucky justification, the importance of error avoidance, the problem of simplicity, various forms of evidentialism, doxastic voluntarism, epistemic deontologism, the question of belief's aim, the availability of evidential support for beliefs of bounded reasoners, contextualism, and the connections between his account and formal models of justification and knowledge, such as epistemic and justification logics. Arguing for a radical conception of epistemology as being concerned with the duties that arise during the process of belief formation, Rationality and Epistemic Sophistication will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy in general and of epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science in particular. Book jacket.

Contents:

Justificatory luck

Evidence, evidentialism, and standards

Evidence possession and justificatory relevance

Epistemic responsibility

Towards a theory of epistemic standards

Simplicity and error avoidance

Justification and doxastic permissibility

Epistemic skills and wisdom

Rationality, formal and material.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739178065

0739178067

OCLC:

898161620