The Epistemology Of Desire And The Problem Of Nihilism
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The Epistemology of Desire and the Problem of Nihilism
Author: Allan Hazlett
language: en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: 2024-04-25
Most people have wondered whether anything really matters, some have temporarily thought that nothing really matters, and some philosophers have defended the view that nothing really matters. However, if someone thinks that nothing matters--if they are a "nihilist about value"--then it seems that it is irrational for them to care about anything. It seems that nihilism about value mandates total indifference. This is the "problem of nihilism" Allan Hazlett addresses in The Epistemology of Desire and the Problem of Nihilism. Hazlett argues that the problem of nihilism arises because desire--and thus caring--is a species of evaluation that admits of irrationality. This contradicts the influential Humean view that desire does not admit of irrationality, which has a ready solution to the problem of nihilism: since desire does not admit of irrationality, it cannot be irrational to care about something that you believe does not matter. However, following G.E. Anscombe, Hazlett argues that desire has the same relationship to goodness as belief has to truth: just as truth is the accuracy condition for belief, goodness is the accuracy condition for desire. This reveals desire as an appropriate target of epistemological inquiry, in the same way that belief is an appropriate target of epistemological inquiry. Desires can amount to knowledge (in the same way that beliefs can amount to knowledge) and, crucially for the problem of nihilism, desire admits of irrationality (in the same way that belief admits of irrationality). Nevertheless, although it is obviously irrational to believe something that you believe is not true, Hazlett argues that it is not irrational to desire something you believe is not good, despite the fact that goodness is the accuracy condition for desire. This provides a solution to the problem of nihilism, and shows that nihilism about value can coherently be combined with the anti-Humean view that desire is a species of evaluation.
The Oxford Handbook of Social Epistemology
How do we learn from one another on the internet? How can we defend ourselves from propaganda and seek the truth? How do our race, gender, and other aspects of our identity imbue how we learn and know things? Social epistemology explores timely and urgent questions such as these, which is why the field has seen an explosion of interest in recent years. Having originated as a subfield, social epistemology now permeates the agenda of mainstream epistemology, even though it challenges epistemology's traditional focus on the individual. The Oxford Handbook of Social Epistemology offers a collection of cutting-edge essays on many of the most important issues in this rapidly growing area of philosophy. It takes stock of recent developments in the field and reassesses topics that have been thought to fit comfortably within a more traditional approach to epistemology--including our capacities to know our own minds, to reason, and to remember--by examining the ways in which they might be significantly impacted by one's social environment. Several chapters interrogate the boundaries of what social epistemology is by exploring its application to significant issues outside of philosophy--such as psychology, sociology, and political theory--as well as the ways it intersects with ethics, the philosophies of language and mind, political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and critical philosophy of race. Divided into seven sections, this handbook provides a comprehensive coverage of work in this exciting and fertile area of philosophy as it highlights the relevance and importance of social factors to some of the most pressing epistemological questions facing us as agents in the world.
Belief as Emotion
Author: Miriam Schleifer McCormick
language: en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: 2024-10-31
Belief as Emotion argues that belief is a type of emotion, where emotions are understood as irreducibly blended states that transcend the cognitive/non-cognitive divide, containing representational, motivational and phenomenological elements. On this view to believe is to feel that the way one represents the world is accurate and this feeling is a kind of evaluation. This view helps explain a number of puzzling phenomena in epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, and philosophy of religion. Further, thinking of beliefs as emotions helps us to understand the ethics of belief. It offers a better understanding of what are sometimes called “edge cases” of beliefs, ones that seem belief-like but that are hard to fit into most standard pictures of belief. These include delusions, religious and political attitudes, and belief in the context of trust. Given their complicated relationship to evidence and action, many theorists claim that such attitudes should not be categorized as beliefs, but as a different mental state. Belief as Emotion does not force us to exclude states as real beliefs that we pre-reflectively think of as beliefs, and that does not require us to “outsource” the work belief seems to do to other mental states. The view also illuminates the phenomena of self-deception, implicit bias, and deep disagreement. Ideal emotional maintenance is complex; thinking of beliefs as emotions acknowledges and embraces this complexity of our doxastic lives.