Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:45:40.434Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Akrasia and Epistemic Impurism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2021

JAMES FRITZ Open the ORCID record for JAMES FRITZ [Opens in a new window]
JAMES FRITZ*
Affiliation:
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITYjamie.c.fritz@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay provides a novel argument for impurism, the view that certain non-truth-relevant factors can make a difference to a belief's epistemic standing. I argue that purists, unlike impurists, are forced to claim that certain ‘high-stakes’ cases rationally require agents to be akratic. Akrasia is one of the paradigmatic forms of irrationality. So purists, in virtue of calling akrasia rationally mandatory in a range of cases with no obvious precedent, take on a serious theoretical cost. By focusing on akrasia, and on the nature of the normative judgments involved therein, impurists gain a powerful new way to frame a core challenge for purism. They also gain insight about the way in which impurism is true: my argument motivates the claim that there is moral encroachment in epistemology.

Keywords

akrasiaimpurismmoral encroachmentpragmatic encroachmentpractical rationality
Type
Article
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 2021 , pp. 98 - 116
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

For helpful discussion, I am grateful to Mike Ashfield, Ethan Brauer, Patrick Croskery, Justin D'Arms, Jenni Ernst, Brian McLean, Julia Jorati, Matthew Shields, Keshav Singh, several anonymous referees, and audiences at meetings of the Eastern APA and the Ohio Philosophical Association. Special thanks to Tristram McPherson and Declan Smithies, who provided invaluable help at every stage of the drafting process.

References

Anderson, Charity, and Hawthorne, John. (2019) ‘Knowledge, Practical Adequacy, and Stakes’. In Gendler, Tamar and Hawthorne, John (eds.), Oxford Studies in Epistemology, vol. 6 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 234–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Derek. (2018) ‘Skepticism about Ought Simpliciter’. In Shafer-Landau, Russ (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 13 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 230–52.Google Scholar
Basu, Rima, and Schroeder, Mark. (2019) ‘Doxastic Wronging’. In Kim, Brian and McGrath, Matthew (eds.), Pragmatic Encroachment in Epistemology (New York: Routledge), 181–205.Google Scholar
Bolinger, Renée Jorgensen. (2020). ‘The Rational Impermissibility of Accepting (Some) Racial Generalizations’. Synthese 197, 2415–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Jessica. (2008) ‘Subject-Sensitive Invariantism and the Knowledge Norm for Practical Reasoning’. Noûs, 42, 167–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coates, Allen. (2012) ‘Rational Epistemic Akrasia’. American Philosophical Quarterly, 49, 113–24.Google Scholar
Craig, Edward. (1999) Knowledge and the State of Nature: An Essay in Conceptual Synthesis. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeRose, Keith. (1992) ‘Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 52, 913–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeRose, Keith. (2009) The Case for Contextualism, vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorst, Kevin. (2019) ‘Lockeans Maximize Expected Accuracy’. Mind, 128, 175–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fantl, Jeremy, and McGrath, Matthew. (2007) ‘On Pragmatic Encroachment in Epistemology’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 75, 558–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fantl, Jeremy, and McGrath, Matthew. (2009) Knowledge in an Uncertain World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foot, Philippa. (1997) ‘Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives’. In Darwall, Stephen, Gibbard, Allan, and Railton, Peter (eds.), Moral Discourse and Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 313–22.Google Scholar
Fritz, James. (2017) ‘Pragmatic Encroachment and Moral Encroachment’. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 98, 643–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerken, Mikkel. (2015) ‘The Roles of Knowledge Ascriptions in Epistemic Assessment’. European Journal of Philosophy, 23, 141–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, Stephen. (2015) ‘Knowledge, Practical Interests, and Rising Tides’. In Henderson, David K. and Greco, John (eds.), Epistemic Evaluation: Purposeful Epistemology (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 117–37.Google Scholar
Hannon, Michael. (2017) ‘Knowledge's Threshold Problem’. Philosophical Studies, 174, 607–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, Elizabeth. (2015) ‘The Irrelevance of Moral Uncertainty’. In Shafer-Landau, Russ (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 10 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 53–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawthorne, John, and Stanley, Jason. (2008) ‘Knowledge and Action’. Journal of Philosophy, 105, 571–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Thomas. (2002) ‘The Rationality of Belief and Some Other Propositional Attitudes’. Philosophical Studies, 110, 163–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolodny, Niko, and MacFarlane, John. (2010) ‘Ifs and Oughts’. Journal of Philosophy, 107, 115–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasonen-Aarnio, Maria. (2014) ‘Higher-Order Evidence and the Limits of Defeat’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 88, 314–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lord, Errol. (2015) ‘Acting for the Right Reasons, Abilities, and Obligation’. In Shafer-Landau, Russ (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 10 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 26–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrath, Matthew. (2015) ‘Two Purposes of Knowledge Attribution and the Contextualism Debate.’ In Henderson, David K. and Greco, John (eds.), Epistemic Evaluation: Purposeful Epistemology (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 138–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McPherson, Tristram. (2018) ‘Authoritatively Normative Concepts’. In Shafer-Landau, Russ (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 13 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 253–77.Google Scholar
Moss, Sarah. (2018) ‘Moral Encroachment’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 118, 177–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pace, Michael. (2011) ‘The Epistemic Value of Moral Considerations: Justification, Moral Encroachment, and James’ “Will to Believe”’. Noûs, 45, 239–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parfit, Derek. (2011) On What Matters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reed, Baron. (2010) ‘A Defense of Stable Invariantism’. Noûs, 44, 224–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rinard, Susanna. (2017) ‘No Exception for Belief’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 94, 121–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roeber, Blake. (2018) ‘The Pragmatic Encroachment Debate’. Noûs, 52, 171–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roeber, Blake. (2020) ‘How To Argue for Pragmatic Encroachment’. Synthese, 197, 2649–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, David, Machery, Edouard, Stich, Stephen, Alai, Mario, Angelucci, Adriano, Berniūnas, Renatas, Buchtel, Emma E., et al. (2017) ‘Nothing at Stake in Knowledge’. Noûs 53, 224–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Jacob, and Schroeder, Mark. (2014) ‘Belief, Credence, and Pragmatic Encroachment’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 88, 259–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smithies, Declan. (2019) The Epistemic Role of Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, Jason. (2005) Knowledge and Practical Interests. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sylvan, Kurt. (2015) ‘What Apparent Reasons Appear to Be’. Philosophical Studies, 172, 587–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Judith Jarvis. (2001) Goodness and Advice. Edited by Amy Gutmann. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiffany, Evan. (2007) ‘Deflationary Normative Pluralism’. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 37(supplement), 231–62.Google Scholar
Titelbaum, Michael G. (2015) ‘Rationality's Fixed Point (Or: In Defense of Right Reason)’. In Gendler, Tamar Szabó and Hawthorne, John (eds.), Oxford Studies in Epistemology, vol. 5 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 253–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weatherson, Brian. (2019) Normative Externalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wedgwood, Ralph. (2012) ‘Outright Belief.’ Dialectica, 66, 309–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Daniel. (2019) ‘An Objectivist's Guide to Subjective Reasons’. Res Philosophica, 96, 229–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worsnip, Alex. (2015) ‘Two Kinds of Stakes’. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 96, 307–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar