The Aim of Belief

257 Pages·2014·1.64 MB·English

by  Timothy Chan

Th e Aim of Belief
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Th e Aim of Belief
edited by
Timothy   Chan
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Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp,
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First Edition published in 2013
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Jonathan E. Adler (1949–2012), a valued contributor not only to
this book but also to the philosophical debates it documents, sadly
passed away before seeing its publication. We dedicate this book
to his memory.
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Acknowledgements

Th is book has been made possible by the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature
(CSMN), University of Oslo, which is funded by the Research Council of Norway. Most
of my editorial work was carried out while a postdoctoral research fellow under the
Rational Agency project at CSMN, under the direction of Olav Gjelsvik and Jennifer
Hornsby, who provided invaluable advice and support throughout. Earlier versions of
many of the contributions were presented at the CSMN conference ‘Th e Aim of Belief’,
held in Oslo in June 2009, and to all the participants this book owes no small credit. I am
grateful to Herman Cappelen, Christel Fricke, Anders Nes, and Timothy Williamson
for extremely helpful advice, and to Kjell Schmidt for highly effi cient editorial assis-
tance. I am also thankful to two anonymous readers for Oxford University Press, for
their detailed comments on earlier draft s that substantively improved the book, and
to Peter Momtchiloff , philosophy commissioning editor of Oxford University Press,
for supporting the project. Finally, I am most grateful to the authors of each chapter
for their generous contributions, and for their patience through the editorial process.
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Contents

List of Contributors x i
1. Introduction: Aiming at Truth 1
Timothy   Chan
2. Belief-Truth Norms 17
Paul Horwich
3. In Defence of Normativism about the Aim of Belief 32
Pascal   Engel
4. Th ere Are No Norms of Belief 64
David Papineau
5. Against Belief Normativity 80
Kathrin   Glüer and Åsa W ikforss
6. Belief, Truth, and Blindspots 100
Krister Bykvist and Anandi H attiangadi
7. Th e Right Th ing to Believe 123
Ralph Wedgwood
8. Non-Evidential Reasons to Believe 1 40
Jonathan   Adler and M ichael   Hicks
9. Leaps of Knowledge 167
Andrew Reisner
10. Nothing but the Truth: On the Norms and Aims of Belief 184
Daniel Whiting
11. Truth as the Aim of Epistemic Justifi cation 204
Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen
Index 2 27
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