Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Normativity and Control
ISBN: 9780198713234
Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Philosophy Metaphysics/ Epistemology Moral Philosophy;

Do we control what we believe? Are we responsible for what we believe? These two questions are connected: the kind of responsibility we have for our beliefs depends on the form of control that we have over them. In a series of ten essays David Owens explores various different forms of control we might have over belief and the different forms of responsibility they generate. Philosophers like Descartes, Locke, and Hume saw a further connection between these issuesand the traditional problems of epistemology such as the problem of scepticism and the role played by our reliance on the testimony of others. Owens shows how getting clearer about control over andresponsibility for our beliefs casts light on these problems also.