Dear all, Please join us for the CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) seminar
Wednesday 29th 1-2:30pm in HPS Seminar Room 2. Lisa Bortolotti (Birmingham) will give a talk entitled "The Epistemic Innocence Project: The Case of Delusions". The abstract is below. Best wishes, Christopher THE EPISTEMIC INNOCENCE PROJECT: THE CASE OF DELUSIONS In the paper I first introduce the notion of epistemic innocence as the status of cognitions that may infringe epistemic norms but have significant epistemic benefits that could not be obtained otherwise. In particular, a cognition is epistemically innocent if (1) it delivers some significant epistemic benefit to a given subject at a given time by contributing to the acquisition, retention or use of relevant true beliefs; (2) alternative cognitions (with fewer epistemic faults) are either unavailable or fail to deliver the same epistemic benefit to that subject at that time. Then, I ask whether clinical delusions have the potential for epistemic innocence. Delusions are typically false and irresponsive to evidence, and exemplify failures of rationality and self-knowledge. But empirical studies suggest that delusions may have psychological benefits by relieving anxiety, enhancing meaningfulness and sense of coherence, or playing a defensive function. Can such psychological benefits convert into epistemic ones? I argue that at least some delusions can have temporary epistemic benefits and be a means to restoring epistemic functionality in agents subject to perceptual anomalies or overwhelming negative emotions. The analysis leads to a multi-faceted view of the epistemic status of delusions, which explains some of the dilemmas affecting clinical practice, and illustrates the complexity of epistemic evaluation.
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