Adam Elga, Joshua Schechter, and Roger White

Adam Elga (left), Joshua Schechter (middle), and Roger White (right) on the problem of contingency.



Your beliefs about matters such as politics, religion, and morality are contingent on epistemically irrelevant factors like the time and place of your birth. Does this worry you? Should it? Elga maintains that this sort of contingency of our beliefs should not by itself undermine our confidence in them. Schechter and White challenge that position.

Update: We’ve repaired some glitches in Schechter’s audio that were present in an earlier posted version of this episode.

Related works

by Elga:

“Lucky to be Rational” (unpublished)

“How to Disagree About How to Disagree” (2007)

by Schechter:

“Luck, Rationality, and Explanation” (unpublished)

with David Enoch: “How are Basic Belief Forming Methods Justified?” (2008)

by White:

“You Just Believe That Because…” (forthcoming)

“Epistemic Permissiveness” (2005)

More video:

David Christensen and Roy Sorensen on the epistemology of disagreement (PTV)

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