Overview

Just as there appear to be situations in which every available option is morally unacceptable, so too there appear to be situations in which every available option is epistemically unacceptable. These have come to be known as 'epistemic dilemmas'. The existence of epistemic dilemmas is controversial. Some epistemologists argue that we should accept them, but there is little agreement about their nature or the contexts in which they arise. Others have argued that they are impossible in principle, or that, even if they are possible, the situations other epistemologists have taken to be epistemic dilemmas are no such thing. Presenting seventeen new essays by leading and up-and-coming epistemologists, Essays on Epistemic Dilemmas pushes the discussion forward by shedding new light on a wide range of areas where epistemic dilemmas may occur.

Full Product Details

Author:   Nick Hughes (University of Oslo)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
ISBN:  

9780198846352

ISBN 10:   0198846355
Pages:   512
Publication Date:   23 April 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   To order  

Table of Contents

Epistemic Dilemmas: A Guide 1: On the Very Idea of an Epistemic Dilemma 2: Epistemic Dilemmas Defended 3: Dilemmas as Conflicts Between Values 4: Doxastic Dilemmas and the Method of Division 5: Epistemological Ambivalence 6: Beginning in Wonder: Suspensive Attitudes and Epistemic Dilemmas 7: The Unity of Evidence and Coherence 8: Evidence-Coherence Conflicts Revisited 9: Embracing Incoherence 10: Epistemic Ideals, a Dilemma, and Stable Evidential Support 11: Defending the Enkratic Requirement 12: Pragmatism, Evidentialism, and Dilemmas 13: Can Commitment Pose a Rational Dilemma? 14: Dilemmas in Science Communication 15: On Moral Encroachment and Normative Conflicts for Graded Belief 16: Epistemic Dilemmas, Undermining Scenarios and Determinate Recommendations 17: Where is the Clutter Avoidance Dilemma?

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Author Information

Nick Hughes is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo. He has also worked at the University of Gothenburg, the University of Oxford, Durham University, and University College Dublin. He completed a joint PhD at the Arché Research Centre at the University of St Andrews and Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature the University of Oslo in 2015. He has recently published a number of papers on epistemic dilemmas. He is currently working on a project on non-ideal rationality.

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