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Esoteric Reliabilism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2019

Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij Open the ORCID record for Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij [Opens in a new window]
Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
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*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Survey data suggest that many philosophers are reliabilists, in believing that beliefs are justified iff produced by a reliable process. This is bad news if reliabilism is true. Empirical results suggest that a commitment to reliable belief-formation leads to overconfident second-guessing of reliable heuristics. Hence, a widespread belief in reliabilism is likely to be epistemically detrimental by the reliabilist's own standard. The solution is a form of two-level epistemic consequentialism, where an esoteric commitment to reliabilism will be appropriate for an enlightened few, while a form of epistemic fetishism – on which some heuristics are treated as fundamental epistemic norms – is appropriate for the rest of us.

Keywords

Reliabilismtwo-level consequentialismoverconfidenceesoteric morality
Type
Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 603 - 623
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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