Abstract

Is it rational to believe something because one wants to believe it? Prima facie it is not, for a rational belief is based on reasons, and the will to believe can be a cause, but not a reason for the belief. Nevertheless, some attempts of causally self-inducing beliefs can be viewed as a sort of second-order rationality. This paper sketches a view of this secondorder rationality based on Davidson’s thesis of the divided mind and Ortega’s distinction between ideas and beliefs. The uncomfortable conclusion of the discussion is that the ability to have second-order beliefs about our beliefs is what makes possible both self-criticism and self-improvement and dogmatism and self-corruption and that the possibility condition of rationality and freedom and of irrationality and alienation are the same