the ethics of belief

the two senses of ought (mine shaft case, objective vs perspectival ought, application to belief (objective vs perspectival standard)), the traditional package: veritism and evidentialism (veritism vs evidentialism, good vs bad beliefs), the pragmatism challenge (argument, pragmatism about belief, key cases for pragmatism, pragmatist’s defence), criticisms and counter-arguments (problematic practical beliefs, evidentialist rebuttals (belief vs intention, epistemic vs overall goodness))

objective ought

what is best to do/believe in view of all the facts, even those the person doesnt know

perspectival ought

what is best to do in view of information available to the person

traditional understanding of belief

veritism vs evidentialism

veritism (objective)

you should believe a proposition (p) iff it is true (the aim of belief is truth)

evidentialism (perspectival)

you should believe p iff it is sufficiently supported by your evidence

examples of good vs bad beliefs

good is expert testimony, bad is cherry picking

the pragmatism challenge argument

belief is rational if it is practically useful, even if it isnt supported by evidence

pragmatism about belief

a belief is good if it has the highest practical value/utility

key cases for pragmatism

cancer patient, athlete, Pascal’s wager

pragmatist’s defence

Rinard argues that equal treatment should apply, if utility makes an action rational, it should make a belief rational too

criticism of pragmatist challenge

problematic practical beliefs, evidentialist rebuttals

problematic practical beliefs

avoiding true but sad news, should you believe things to make you happy?

evidentialist rebuttals

belief vs intention, epistemic vs overall goodness

belief vs intention (evidentialist rebuttals)

it is rational to intend to believe (bcs it is useful) but the belief remains irrational if unsupported by evidence

epistemic vs overall goodness (evidentialist rebuttals)

a belief might be epistemically bad (unsupported by truth) but overall good because its practical benefits outweigh its lack of evidence