O V E R V I E W

Our beliefs can be bad or faulty in various ways – among other things, unwarranted, incoherent, rash, unfair, biased, or offensive. When this is the case, we are often rightly subject to criticism. It is natural to say that we are responsible for what we think as well as for what we do, and sometimes even subject to blame of some sort for our beliefs. But this is puzzling, for it seems we can’t control our beliefs in the way we can perhaps control our actions. So in what way can we be responsible for our beliefs, and on what basis? Are racist beliefs epistemically bad or morally bad, or one in virtue of another? What kind of mistake do we make when we fail to trust someone just because of their accent? And what does it take for us to believe responsibly and avoid such flaws, both as individuals and as societies? 

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These questions have of late risen to the center of debates in epistemology and ethics, or in the intersection of the two. There’s a growing realization that there are many dimensions to the evaluation of belief, but a lot of unclarity about how they relate to each other, and what the conditions of individually and socially responsible belief are. Here epistemology and ethics have much to learn from each other. This project systematically explored these issues. 

Responsible Beliefs: Why Ethics and Epistemology Need Each Other was funded by the Academy of Finland and based at the Disciplines of Practical and Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. The project ended in August 2023.

Academy of Finland