Beliefs do not come in degrees |
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Authors: | Andrew Moon |
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Affiliation: | Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA |
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Abstract: | Philosophers commonly say that beliefs come in degrees (or that beliefs are graded or that there are partial beliefs). Drawing from the literature, I make precise three arguments for this claim: an argument from degrees of confidence, an argument from degrees of firmness, and an argument from natural language. I show that they all fail. I also advance three arguments that beliefs do not come in degrees: an argument from natural language, an argument from intuition, and an argument from the metaphysics of degrees. On the basis of these arguments, I conclude that beliefs do not come in degrees. |
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Keywords: | Belief confidence degrees of belief partial belief degrees |
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