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Evaluating beliefs

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TypeOfResource
Text
TitleInfo (ID = T-1)
Title
Evaluating beliefs
Identifier
ETD_2783
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000056376
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2); (type = code)
eng
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
Subject (ID = SBJ-1); (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Philosophy
Subject (ID = SBJ-2); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Belief and doubt
Subject (ID = SBJ-3); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Knowledge, Theory of
Subject (ID = SBJ-4); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Metaphysics
Abstract (type = abstract)
This dissertation examines some of ways of evaluating beliefs, relevant to epistemology and to metaphysics. Some problems in normative epistemology are solved by properly relating justified belief, rational belief, and knowledge. Chapter 1 uses this strategy to defend externalism about justified belief. Chapters 3 and 4 defend the view that knowledge is the epistemic standard we aim for our beliefs to meet. Chapter 2 investigates which beliefs are improper because formed in an objectionably circular way. The findings support the Moorean response to Brain-In-a-Vat skepticism, by rebutting the objection from ‘easy knowledge’. The theory of justified belief developed in chapter 1 underwrites the Moorean reply. Chapters 5 and 6 make a non-epistemic way of evaluating beliefs central to metaphysics. To understand relativity or vagueness in a subject-matter, we must hold that being true or false is not the metaphysically serious evaluation of how a belief answers to reality. Either verdict on a borderline case is ‘acceptable’ in the metaphysically serious sense. For a matter to be relative is for the ‘acceptability’ of affirming the proposition to vary between judges. Chapters 5 and 6 sketch an approach to metaphysics built from the notion of ‘metaphysically acceptable judgment’, with chapter 6 concentrating on vagueness, and chapter 5 focusing on relativism about knowledge. Chapter 5 argues that the lottery and preface puzzles manifest central features of our concept of knowledge (introduced in chapters 3 and 4). The proposed version of relativism about knowledge is the only theory to respect those features. The view of knowledge presented in chapter 5 is not an isolated metaphysical extravagance, as the same framework is needed for the right metaphysics of everything that’s vague (argued in chapter 6). It is worth noting that my solution to the lottery puzzle is metaphysical relativism about knowledge, but my rebuttal of Brain-In-a-Vat skepticism concerns epistemic circularity and belongs to normative epistemology. Much recent work incorrectly assumes that the two puzzles receive the same treatment.
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
Extent
v, 252 p.
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = vita)
Includes vita
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Alexander Paul Vincent Jackson
Name (ID = NAME-1); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Jackson
NamePart (type = given)
Alexander Paul Vincent
NamePart (type = date)
1979-
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
DisplayForm
Alexander Jackson
Name (ID = NAME-2); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Sosa
NamePart (type = given)
Ernest
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
chair
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Ernest Sosa
Name (ID = NAME-3); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Klein
NamePart (type = given)
Peter
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
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Peter Klein
Name (ID = NAME-4); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Weatherson
NamePart (type = given)
Brian
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Brian Weatherson
Name (ID = NAME-5); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Hawthorne
NamePart (type = given)
John
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
John Hawthorne
Name (ID = NAME-1); (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (ID = NAME-2); (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2010
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2010-10
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T33778H4
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

RightsDeclaration (AUTHORITY = GS); (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
RightsHolder (ID = PRH-1); (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Jackson
GivenName
Alexander
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent (ID = RE-1); (AUTHORITY = rulib)
Type
Permission or license
DateTime
2010-07-20 11:35:07
AssociatedEntity (ID = AE-1); (AUTHORITY = rulib)
Role
Copyright holder
Name
Alexander Jackson
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject (ID = AO-1); (AUTHORITY = rulib)
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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Technical

ContentModel
ETD
MimeType (TYPE = file)
application/pdf
MimeType (TYPE = container)
application/x-tar
FileSize (UNIT = bytes)
2703360
Checksum (METHOD = SHA1)
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