Moore-paradoxical belief, conscious belief and the epistemic Ramsey test
Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
9-2012
Abstract
Chalmers and Hájek (2007) argue that on an epistemic reading—one that seems reasonable—of Ramsey’s test for the acceptability of conditionals, the test is faulty. They argue for the claim that applying the test to each of certain pair of conditionals requires one to think that one is omniscient or infallible, unless one forms irrational Moore-paradoxical beliefs. I show that this claim is false. The epistemic Ramsey test is indeed faulty. Applying it requires that one think of anyone as omniscient and if one is rational, to think of anyone as infallible-if-rational. But this is not because of Moore-paradoxical beliefs. Rather it is because applying the test requires a certain supposition about conscious belief. It is important to understand the nature of this supposition.
Keywords
Ramsey, Ramsey test, Moore, Chalmers, Hájek, Conditionals, Paradox, Belief, Conscious belief, Infallibility, Omniscience, Irrationality
Discipline
Philosophy
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Synthese
Volume
188
Issue
2
First Page
231
Last Page
246
ISSN
0039-7857
Identifier
10.1007/s11229-011-9925-5
Publisher
Springer
Citation
WILLIAMS, John N..(2012). Moore-paradoxical belief, conscious belief and the epistemic Ramsey test. Synthese, 188(2), 231-246.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/966
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Previous Versions
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-011-9925-5