Epistemic Vice and Motivation

Anonymous Giving as a Vice: An Application of Image Motivation

While some donors boast about their giving, others give anonymously. A novel feature of this paper is that anonymity is endogenously controlled by donors themselves, not exogenously controlled by fundraisers. Is anonymous giving really a virtue, as is generally recognised? Paradoxically, this paper proves that anonymity is a vice for fundraisers even if it is what donors desire. If many altruis...

Epistemic Circularity and Epistemic Incommensurability

If I were to believe you are trustworthy just on your say-so, my reasoning would be infected with what is called epistemic circularity. I would be supposing a source is trustworthy by relying on that very source. Generally speaking, we tend to think this is a very bad idea. It is why we don’t bother asking politicians or salesmen whether they are honest. A well-known line of reasoning stemming ...

Epistemic Modals and Epistemic Modality

1 Epistemic Possibility and Other Types of Possibility There is a lot that we don’t know. That means that there are a lot of possibilities that are, epistemically speaking, open. For instance, we don’t know whether it rained in Seattle yesterday. So, for us at least, there is an epistemic possibility where it rained in Seattle yesterday, and one where it did not. It’s tempting to give a very si...

Epistemic Goals and Epistemic Values

The truth exerts a powerful attraction. Reading the newspaper over breakfast a few months ago, I came across the following quote from Ricky Williams, a running back for the Miami Dolphins who was in the process of walking away from his million-dollar salary to pursue a career in holistic medicine. ‘‘I’m going to search for the truth,’’ Williams said. ‘‘Everything I’m doing in my life is about f...

Epistemic Courage and Epistemic Virtue