Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T16:17:30.651Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 3 - Contexts, Costs, and Benefits

from Part I - Beings of Thought in Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2021

Andy Mueller
Affiliation:
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
Get access

Summary

In this chapter, I argue for a contextualist approach to epistemic norms for practical reasoning, according to which the degree of justification required for it to be permissible to treat p as a reason for action varies with context. In section 3.1, I introduce how these proposals are motivated and three questions that will shape the following discussion. In sections 3.2 to 3.4, I discuss the proposals of Brown, Gerken, and Locke in turn. The most pressing issue for current contextualist accounts is what I call the incompleteness problem, which is how context determines what degree of justification a context calls for. In section 3.5, I develop a solution to the incompleteness problem that involves a comparison of two opposing costs, the costs of error and the costs of further inquiry. Finally, I point out a context-invariant principle that will become significant in Chapter 5.

Type
Chapter
Information
Beings of Thought and Action
Epistemic and Practical Rationality
, pp. 55 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Contexts, Costs, and Benefits
  • Andy Mueller, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
  • Book: Beings of Thought and Action
  • Online publication: 25 June 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992985.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Contexts, Costs, and Benefits
  • Andy Mueller, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
  • Book: Beings of Thought and Action
  • Online publication: 25 June 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992985.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Contexts, Costs, and Benefits
  • Andy Mueller, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
  • Book: Beings of Thought and Action
  • Online publication: 25 June 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992985.003
Available formats
×