Believing Against the Evidence (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy) - Softcover

McCormick, Miriam Schleifer Schleifer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1138208949 ISBN 13: 9781138208940

Publisher: Routledge, 2016

Synopsis

The question of whether it is ever permissible to believe on insufficient evidence has once again become a live question. Greater attention is now being paid to practical dimensions of belief, namely issues related to epistemic virtue, doxastic responsibility, and voluntarism.

In this book, McCormick argues that the standards used to evaluate beliefs are not isolated from other evaluative domains. The ultimate criteria for assessing beliefs are the same as those for assessing action because beliefs and actions are both products of agency. Two important implications of this thesis, both of which deviate from the dominant view in contemporary philosophy, are 1) it can be permissible (and possible) to believe for non-evidential reasons, and 2) we have a robust control over many of our beliefs, a control sufficient to ground attributions of responsibility for belief.

About this title

About the Author

Miriam Schleifer McCormick is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Richmond, US.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138208949
• ISBN 13: 9781138208940
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160