I’m interested in what it is to believe well, both epistemically and morally, and in the nature of conflicts and disunity among our attitudes (and, more generally, within ourselves). Currently, this includes work on incoherence and structural rationality, meta-normativity, and the nature of inquiry; I am also interested in the ethics of belief and the nature of understanding.
“Incoherence and Analyticity.” Forthcoming in Philosophical Studies.
“Towards a Relational View of Incoherence.” Provisionally forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 22.
A paper on success in inquiry.
A paper arguing against parallelism/proportionality between structural and substantive rationality.
A paper on immodest credences. [handout]
A paper on the relationship between gaslighting and lying.
A paper specifying a kind of (un)intelligibility that can help account for the nature of (in)coherence.
A paper on how the order of inquiry can sometimes matter.
On Falbo, “Should Epistemology take the Zetetic Turn?” APA Eastern 2023. [comments]
We often seem to care that our attitudes match the way things are. I shouldn’t believe that the Earth is flat (it’s not); you shouldn’t intend to torture animals (it’s wrong); people shouldn’t prefer everything bagels to sesame bagels (the latter are clearly superior!). At the same time, we also seem to care about our attitudes cohering or fitting together: if I think my evidence shows that the Earth is flat, then “by my lights” I should believe that the Earth is flat. And if you prefer everything bagels to sesame, then “by your lights” you should (all else equal) intend to order an everything bagel over a sesame bagel.
Many philosophers accept that failing by one’s own lights is incoherent and structurally irrational. But what is it for something to follow by my lights? And why care about following these “lights”?
My dissertation, One’s Own Lights, addresses these questions. The first half of the dissertation challenges orthodox thinking about incoherence; the second half develops a novel account.