Overview

This book, the first of its kind, puts forward a novel, unified cognitive account of skeptical doubt. Historically, most philosophers have tried to tackle this difficult topic by directly arguing that skeptical doubt is false. But N. Ángel Pinillos does something different. He begins by trying to uncover the hidden mental rule which, for better or worse, motivates our skeptical inclinations. He then gives an account of the broader cognitive purpose of having and applying this rule. Based on these ideas, he shows how we can give a new response to the traditional problem of global skepticism. He also argues that philosophical skepticism is not just something that comes up during philosophical reflection, as David Hume, Charles Sanders Peirce and other philosophers have urged. Instead, it is of great practical significance. The rule which produces skepticism may itself be operative in certain pathologies such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, in creative endeavors, and in conspiratorial thinking. The rule can also explain some of our reluctance to trust statistical evidence, especially in legal settings. More broadly, this volume aims to breathe new life into a classic problem in philosophy by tackling it from a new perspective and exploring new areas of application. The book will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists and anyone interested in the human capacity to doubt and to question our beliefs.

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9780198871965

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Reviews

Pinillos gets serious about skeptical doubt as a psychological phenomenon, offering us a cognitive-scientific account of where it comes from... The book is a major contribution to empirically informed epistemology and a model for how to bring cognitive science to bear on traditional philosophical issues. * Matthew McGrath, Washington University in St. Louis * This [is a] really excellent monograph. I learned a ton from this book. It is remarkably deeply and broadly researched and meticulously argued. It covers so much ground-in both cognitive science and epistemology... * Branden Fitelson, Northeastern University *

Pinillos gets serious about skeptical doubt as a psychological phenomenon, offering us a cognitive-scientific account of where it comes from... The book is a major contribution to empirically informed epistemology and a model for how to bring cognitive science to bear on traditional philosophical issues. * Matthew McGrath, Washington University in St. Louis * This [is a] really excellent monograph. I learned a ton from this book. It is remarkably deeply and broadly researched and meticulously argued. It covers so much ground-in both cognitive science and epistemology... * Branden Fitelson, Northeastern University * Why We Doubt (OUP, 2023) is a great book. Crystal clear, meticulous, immersed in empirical and philosophical literature and full of argument and insight, it is a paradigm of excellent philosophical work. It is a must read for anyone interested in the theory of knowledge and related topics, such as the cognitive psychology of doubt, belief and knowledge. The book provides a cognitive, computational explanation of doubt in human cognition and then utilizes these mechanics of doubt to understand various doubt-related epistemic phenomena: skepticism in its various forms, its (dis)value, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), conspiracy theories, relevant alternatives theory and more. He even draws from neuroscientific results to suggest a location of the brain circuitry that physically realizes skeptical inclinations. * Christos Kyriacou, Asian Journal of Philosophy *

Author Information

N. Ángel Pinillos is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. He earned a BS in Mathematics from Tufts University and a PhD in Philosophy from Rutgers University. He has authored numerous scholarly articles on cognitive science and epistemology as well as on the philosophy of language. Pinillos has presented his work in over a dozen countries and has also written for public venues, including the New York Times.

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