Abstract

Through the work of Isaac Levi and others, a tension that lies at the heart of Peirce’s doubt-belief theory of inquiry has received significant attention in recent years. Scholars have struggled to explain on Peirce’s behalf how inquirers are to strike an appropriate balance between believing and doubting. We must acknowledge the breadth and depth of our fallibility without countenancing paper doubts that are at best idle and at worst pernicious. We must rely on our beliefs in inquiry while nevertheless remaining ready to drop them when experience speaks sufficiently against them. Overconfidence threatens to block the road of inquiry via excessive tenacity, while underconfidence threatens to impede inquiry via a...