Bondy - Epistemic rationality and epistemic normativity

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? Bondys 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 voluntarismthe view that beliefs are subject to our direct voluntary controland 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.

Patrick Bondy is Assistant Professor at Saint Marys University, Canada. He has previously held appointments at Trent University and Brandon University and a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. His research has appeared in Dialogue, Synthese, American Philosophical Quarterly, Metaphilosophy, Philosophia, Episteme, Logos & Episteme, Informal Logic, and Pacific Philosophical Quarterly.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bondy, Patrick, author.

Title: Epistemic rationality and epistemic normativity / by Patrick Bondy.

Description: 1 [edition]. | New York : Routledge, 2017. |

Series: Routledge studies in contemporary philosophy ; 102 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017044427 | ISBN 9781138220584 (hardback : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Epistemics. | Evidence.

Classification: LCC B820.3 .B66 2017 | DDC 121dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017044427

ISBN: 978-1-138-22058-4 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-41253-5 (ebk)

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I am happy to acknowledge the intellectual debts I owe to many people for the help theyve given me in developing the ideas in this book; without them this book simply would not exist in its current form.

are largely based on parts of my doctoral dissertation, and so I want first of all to thank David Hitchcock, my thesis supervisor; my thesis and defence committee members Mark Vorobej, Brian Garrett, and Nick Griffin; and John Turri, my external examiner, for the careful reading and helpful feedback they provided on earlier formulations of these ideas.

For careful reading and helpful discussion of various draft chapters, I am very grateful to Benjamin Wald, Daniel Coren, Fabio Shecaira, Jeremy Livingston, Ariane Hanemaayer, Dustin Olson, and Carl Ginet. For discussion which has helped me develop and clarify my ideas, I want to thank David Kovacs, Ru Ye, Adam Bendorf, Lu Teng, Andrew Chignell, J. Adam Carter, Duncan Pritchard, Jason Stanley, Christina Behme, Daniel Mittag, Daniel Fogal, Harvey Siegel, and other audience members and commentators at various conferences and colloquia, including the Canadian Philosophical Association, the Canadian Society for Epistemology, the McMaster University Philosophy Speakers Series, the Dalhousie University Philosophy Speakers Series, the European Conference on Argumentation, the Values in ArgumentationValues of Argumentation conference at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and the Eastern Division conference of the American Philosophical Association. I would also like to thank two blind reviewers at Routledge for their very useful feedback.

The research for , which was originally published as Epistemic Deontologism and Strong Doxastic Voluntarism: A Defense, Dialogue (2015), was supported by a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. I have also benefitted from a Visiting Research Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh, which was made possible by SSHRC; the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI); the School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Science (PPLS) at the University of Edinburgh; and of course, IASH itself.

Finally, to Kari, who has supported and put up with me during the writing of this book: you are the very best!

Imagine that you own a line of fancy transatlantic cruise ships, and business is good. One day, one of your captains alerts you to an apparent problem with one of your ships. Concerned, you have a full inspection done, which reveals that the ship is in very bad shape; in fact theres an even chance that it wont survive another voyage. You therefore put it in dry dock to be repaired and congratulate yourself on your conscientiousness.

Now imagine a slightly different case. You are still the owner of a line of fancy transatlantic cruise ships; one of your captains alerts you to an apparent problem with one of your ships, and to appease your captain, you have a full inspection done. The inspection reveals that the ship is in very bad shape; in fact theres an even chance that it wont survive another trip. Butcurse your greedy soul!you dread the prospect of paying for the repairs and having to refund the tickets that have already been sold. So you proceed to convince yourself that the ship will most likely survive another trip, doctor the inspection results, and send the ship on its final voyage. Out on the deep and treacherous waters, it goes down, taking every unfortunate soul with it.