The Ethics of Belief

THE ETHICS OF BELIEF
SPRING 2019

Meets Wednesdays in 59/1257 from 10am-noon
and Thursdays in 65/1097 from 11am-noon

SCHEDULE OF READINGS

For each week, the readings mainly divide into required
and optional further readings. I include the optional
readings just in case you find the topic especially interesting and
would like to write a paper on it or simply learn more.

Week 1 – The Nature and History of the Ethics of Belief

Required Reading
There is none for this week. See Blackboard for notes and slides.

Optional further reading: Introductory
Chignell, A. 'The Ethics of Belief' LINK
Marusic, B. 'The Ethics of Belief' LINK
McCormick, M. 'Ethics of Belief' LINK

Optional further reading: Historical
Arnold, D. Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief
Booth, A. Islamic Philosophy and the Ethics of Belief
Clifford, W. K. ‘The Ethics of Belief’
Chignell, A. ‘Belief in Kant’
Curley, E. ‘Descartes, Spinoza, and the Ethics of Belief’
James, W. ‘The Will to Believe’
Montaigne, M. ‘Apology for Raimond Sebond’
Newman, J. H. An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
SEP entry on Pascal
Passmore, J. ‘Locke and the Ethics of Belief’

Week 2 – Contemporary Evidentialism vs. Pragmatism

Required Reading
Rinard, S. ‘Against the New Evidentialists’ LINK
Shah, N. ‘A New Argument for Evidentialism’ LINK

Optional Further Reading
Hiernonymi, P. ‘The Wrong Kind of Reason’
Leary, S. ‘In Defense of Pragmatic Reasons for Belief’
McCormick, M. Believing against the Evidence.
McCormick, M. ‘No Kind of Reason is the Wrong Kind of Reason’
McCormick, M. ‘Can Beliefs Be Based on Practical Reasons?’
McHugh, C. ‘The Illusion of Exclusivity’
Parfit, D. ‘State-Given Reasons’
Preston-Roedder, R. ‘Faith in Humanity’
Reisner, A. ‘The Possibility of Pragmatic Reasons for Belief and the Wrong Kind of Reasons Problem’
Schroeder, M. ‘The Ubiquity of State-Given Reasons’

Week 3 – Belief and the Limits of Reason

Required
Sylvan, K. and Sosa, E. ‘The Place of Reasons in Epistemology.’ LINK

Optional further reading
Kornblith, H. ‘The Role of Reasons in Epistemology’
Srinivasan, A. ‘Radical Externalism’
Sosa, E. ‘Intuitions’
Sylvan, K. ‘Evidence, Virtue, and Beyond’
Sylvan, K. ‘Reasons in Epistemology’

Week 4 – Pragmatic Encroachment

Required Reading
Brown, J. “Knowledge and Practical Reason.” LINK

Strongly Recommended Reading
            Stanley, J. and Hawthorne, J. “Knowledge and Action.” LINK

Optional Further Reading
Brown, J. “Impurism, Practical Reasoning, and the Threshold Problem.”
Brown, J. “Practical Reasoning, Decision Theory, and Anti-Intellectualism.”
  Brown, J. “Subject-Sensitive Invariantism and the Knowledge Norm for Practical Reasoning.”
Fantl, J. and McGrath, M. “Evidence, Pragmatics, and Justification.”
Hawthorne, J. Selections from Knowledge and Lotteries.
Lackey, J. “Acting on Knowledge.”
Stanley, J. Selections from Knowledge and Practical Interests.

Week 5 – Moral Encroachment

Required Reading
Moss, S. ‘Moral Encroachment’ LINK

Strongly recommended reading
Gardiner, G. ‘Evidentialism and Moral Encroachment’ LINK

Further reading
Basu, R. ‘Can Beliefs Wrong?’
Basu, R. and Schroeder, M. ‘Doxastic Wronging’
Clifford, W. K. ‘The Ethics of Belief’
Mitova, V. ‘Why W. K. Clifford Was a Closet Pragmatist’
Pace, M. ‘The Epistemic Value of Moral Considerations...and James’s ‘Will to Believe’’

Week 6 – Authority vs. Freedom and Equality in Matters Doxastic

Required reading
Zagzebski, L. Selections from Epistemic Authority  LINK-1, LINK-2

Strongly recommended reading
Zagzebski, L. Further selections from Epistemic Authority LINK-1, LINK-2, LINK-3

Further reading
Arnold, D. Buddhists, Brahmins and Belief
Buchanan, A. ‘Political Liberalism and Social Epistemology’
Kant, I. ‘What is Enlightenment?’
Foley, R. Intellectual Trust in Oneself and Others
Fricker, E. ‘Testimony and epistemic autonomy’
Popkin, R. ‘The Intellectual Crisis of the Reformation’
Sanger, L. ‘Who Says We Know: On the New Politics of Knowledge’

Week 7 – Epistemic Injustice

Required Reading
Fricker, M. Selections from Epistemic Injustice LINK

Strongly Recommended Reading
Fricker, M. Further Selections from Epistemic Injustice LINK

Optional Further Reading
Anderson, E. “Epistemic Injustice as a Virtue of Social Institutions.”
Dotson, K. "Conceptualizing Epistemic Oppression."
Fricker, M. “Epistemic Oppression and Epistemic Privilege.”
       Gendler, T. “The Epistemic Costs of Implicit Bias.”
Pohlhaus, G. “Relational Knowing and Epistemic Injustice.”
            Gougen, S. “Stereotype Threat, Epistemic Injustice, and Rationality.”

Week 8 – Ideology

Required Reading
Shelby, Tommie. “Ideology, Racism, and Critical Social Theory.”   LINK
Stanley, Jason. Selection from How Propaganda Works.   LINK

Strongly recommended reading
Eagleton, T. ‘From Enlightenment to the Second International’
Kennedy, E. ‘Ideology’ from Destutt de Tracy to Marx’
Stanley, J. Selection from How Propaganda Works.  LINK-1, LINK-2

Optional Further Reading
Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.”   LINK
Elster, John. "Belief, Bias, and Ideology."   LINK
Geuss, Raymond. "Ideology."   LINK
Haslanger, Sally. “Racism, Ideology, and Social Movements.”   LINK
Haslanger, Sally. "Ideology Beyond Belief."   LINK
Lippmann, Walter. Selections from Public Opinion.   LINK
Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich. Selections from The German Ideology.   LINK
Rosen, Michael. "The Forms of False Consciousness."   LINK
Srinivasan, A. "Philosophy and Ideology."   LINK

Weeks 9 and 10 – Problems of the Post-Truth World

Required reading
Fuller, S.  Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game, Selection. LINK
Nguyen, C. T. 'Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles.' LINK

Strongly recommended reading
Fuller, S.  Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game, Further Selections. LINK-1, LINK-2

Further reading
Ball, J. Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World
Cassam, Q. ‘Epistemic Insouciance’
Davis, E. Selection from Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached
Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do about It
Lyotard, J. F.  The Postmodern Condition
Mukerji, N. ‘What is Fake News?’
Rini, R. ‘Fake News and Partisan Epistemology’