Epistemology of Disagreement: The Good News

Abstract

We all live out our lives in states of epistemic imperfection.Most obviously, this is true because the evidence on which we base our beliefs is limited.Only a little less obviously, we live in states of epistemic imperfection because we do not always respond to the evidence we have in the best way.Given that our epistemic condition consists in imperfect responses to incomplete evidence, part of being rational involves taking account of these sources of imperfection.Fortunately, each of us is confronted every day by opportunities for epistemic selfimprovement.Most frequently, opportunity arrives in the form of evidence that bears directly on the subject-matters of our beliefs: hearing the evening weather report, I can revise upward my confidence that it will rain tomorrow.Other opportunities for epistemic self-improvement address not our deficits in evidence, but our deficits in responding to the evidence: reading a 1 This paper was read in the Fall 2004 at Princeton University, and I'd like to thank the audience at that talk for stimulating discussion.I'd also like to thank the following people for