Stop making sense? On a puzzle about rationality

Journal article

Littlejohn, Clayton. (2018). Stop making sense? On a puzzle about rationality. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 96(2), pp. 257-272. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12271
AuthorsLittlejohn, Clayton
Abstract

In this paper, I present a puzzle about epistemic rationality. It seems plausible that it should be rational to believe a proposition if you have sufficient evidential support for it. It seems plausible that it rationality requires you to conform to the categorical requirements of rationality. It also seems plausible that our first-order attitudes ought to mesh with our higher-order attitudes. It seems unfortunate that we cannot accept all three claims about rationality. I will present three ways of trying to resolve this tension and argue that the best way to do this is to reject the idea that strong evidential support is the stuff rationality is made of. In the course of doing this, I shall argue that there is a special class of propositions about the requirements of rationality that we cannot make rational mistakes about and explain how this can be.

Year2018
JournalPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research
Journal citation96 (2), pp. 257-272
PublisherWiley
ISSN0031-8205
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12271
Scopus EID2-s2.0-84952682870
Open accessPublished as green open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range257-272
Author's accepted manuscript
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All rights reserved
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Open
Publisher's version
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File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online22 Dec 2015
Publication process dates
Deposited20 May 2022
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