Does Scepticism Presuppose Voluntarism?

International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 8 (1):31-50 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

_ Source: _Volume 8, Issue 1, pp 31 - 50 Philosophical scepticism is sometimes thought to presuppose doxastic voluntarism, the claim that we are able to believe or disbelieve propositions at will. This is problematic given that doxastic voluntarism itself is a controversial position. I examine two arguments for the view that scepticism presupposes voluntarism. I show that they rely on different versions of a depiction of scepticism as a conversion narrative. I argue that one version of this narrative does presuppose voluntarism, but the other does not. Moreover, alternative versions of the narrative are available. I conclude that scepticism does not presuppose voluntarism.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 86,412

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Doxastic Voluntarism: A Sceptical Defence.Danny Frederick - 2013 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 3 (1):24-44.
Freedom and (theoretical) reason.Margaret Schmitt - 2015 - Synthese 192 (1):25-41.
Descartes and the Question of Direct Doxastic Voluntarism.Rico Vitz - 2010 - Journal of Philosophical Research 35:107-21.
Epistemic Deontology and Voluntariness.Conor McHugh - 2012 - Erkenntnis 77 (1):65-94.
Doxastic voluntarism.Rico Vitz - 2008 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Voluntarism and Transparent Deliberation.Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen - 2006 - South African Journal of Philosophy 25 (2):171-176.
Virtue and voluntarism.James Montmarquet - 2008 - Synthese 161 (3):393 - 402.
The Powers that bind : doxastic voluntarism and epistemic obligation.Neil Levy & Eric Mandelbaum - 2014 - In Jonathan Matheson (ed.), The Ethics of Belief. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 12-33.
Scepticism.Christopher Hookway - 1990 - New York: Routledge.

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-12-31

Downloads
73 (#193,470)

6 months
2 (#522,698)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Epiphenomenal qualia.Frank Jackson - 1982 - Philosophical Quarterly 32 (April):127-136.
The Empirical Stance.Bas C. Van Fraassen - 2004 - New York: Yale University Press.
The Empirical Stance.Bas C. van Fraassen - 2002 - Yale University Press.
Deciding to believe.Bernard Williams - 1973 - In Problems of the Self. Cambridge University Press. pp. 136--51.

View all 33 references / Add more references