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Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4174-4845
AccessType
Campus-Only Access for Five (5) Years
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Philosophy
Year Degree Awarded
2022
Month Degree Awarded
September
First Advisor
Sophie Horowitz
Subject Categories
Epistemology
Abstract
Suppose that Sherlock Holmes has just closed another case, and is convinced that Moriarty is the perpetrator. At that very moment, Inspector Lestrade arrives to inform Holmes that a Scotland Yard analysis of his past investigations shows that he only identifies the correct suspect in 50% of cases. How should Holmes respond to this new information? This is a question about higher-order evidence. Higher-order evidence can be understood as evidence about the rationality of your beliefs, or about your reliability in judging matters in a certain domain. Some views on higher-order evidence, like calibrationism, say that Holmes should drastically reduce his confidence that Moriarty is the perpetrator, in light of what he learns about his track record. Other perspectives will recommend that Holmes stick to his guns instead. This dissertation explores the nature and epistemic significance of higher-order evidence, and considers whether higher-order evidence we acquire from empirical research into human evolution might serve to undermine the justification for our moral beliefs, as evolutionary debunking arguments, like those advanced by Sharon Street and Richard Joyce, have alleged. Ultimately, I argue that the calibrationist response to higher-order evidence is the right one, and that our emerging understanding of how morality evolved does indeed pose a serious challenge to the epistemic status of our moral beliefs.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/30958165
Recommended Citation
Koon, Justis, "Higher-Order Evidence and Human Evolution" (2022). Doctoral Dissertations. 2614.
https://doi.org/10.7275/30958165
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2614