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Chapter 5 - Agnosticism and the Inquiring State of Mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

Avery Archer
Avery Archer
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
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Summary

In this chapter, I mount a sustained argument against Friedman’s claim that one is agnostic about whether P if and only if one is in an inquiring state of mind about whether P. I reject the claim that an inquiring state of mind entails agnosticism on the grounds that it fails to accommodate cases in which an agent inquires with the aim of ratcheting up an instance of (justified) believing to the status of knowledge or an instance of knowledge to the status of complete certainty. I reject the claim that agnosticism entails being in an inquiring state of mind on the grounds that it fails to accommodate cases in which a subject is agnostic towards P but are unmotivated to inquire about whether P because they believe or know that the question of whether P is unanswerable.

Keywords

AgnosticismInquiryQuestion-Directed AttitudesPropositional AttitudesInterrogative AttitudesInquiring AttitudesJane Friedman
Type
Chapter
Information
The Attitude of Agnosticism , pp. 83 - 106
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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