1st Edition

The Dispositional Architecture of Epistemic Reasons

By Hamid Vahid Copyright 2021
    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book is concerned with the conditions under which epistemic reasons provide justification for beliefs. The author draws on metaethical theories of reasons and normativity and then applies his theory to various contemporary debates in epistemology.

    In the first part of the book, the author outlines what he calls the dispositional architecture of epistemic reasons. The author offers and defends a dispositional account of how propositional and doxastic justification are related to one another. He then argues that the dispositional view has the resources to provide an acceptable account of the notion of the basing relation. In the second part of the book, the author examines how his theory of epistemic reasons bears on the issues involving perceptual reasons. He defends dogmatism about perceptual justification against conservatism and shows how his dispositional framework illuminates certain claims of dogmatism and its adherence to justification internalism. Finally, the author applies his dispositional framework to epistemological topics including the structure of defeat, self-knowledge, reasoning, emotions and motivational internalism.

    The Dispositional Architecture of Epistemic Reasons demonstrates the value of employing metaethical considerations for the justification of beliefs and propositions. It will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in epistemology and metaethics.

    Introduction

    Part I: Dispositional Architecture of Epistemic Reasons

    1. Possessing Reasons: A Dispositional Framework

    2. A Dispositional Analysis of Propositional and Doxastic Justification

    3. Dispositions and the Problem of the Basing Relation

    Part II: Perceptual Reasons

    4. The Epistemic Value of Perceptual Experience

    5. Epistemic Conservatism and Perceptual Justification

    6. Dogmatism: The Dispositional Structure of Perceptual Reasons

    Part III: Consequences

    7. Higher-order Evidence and the Dispositional Structure of Epistemic Defeat

    8. The Nature of Inference

    9. The Epistemic Value of Emotions

    10. Motivational Internalism and Motivating Reasons

    11. Self-knowledge: The Epistemic Significance of the Transparency Procedure

    Biography

    Hamid Vahid is Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, Iran. He is the author of Epistemic Justification and the Skeptical Challenge (2005) and The Epistemology of Belief (2009).