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CEPPA Talk – Renee Bolinger (Princeton University)

May 27, 2021 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Title: ‘Are We Entitled to Be Believed?’

Abstract: Discussions in a variety of contexts (including at least epistemic injustice, moral encroachment, epistemic obligations of friendship) sometimes assume that speakers have a right or moral entitlement to be believed when they assert or testify that p: that they are wronged if their audience fails to believe them. It is controversial whether rights of this kind are intelligible, or precisely what their basis is. This talk aims to get clearer on what a “right to be believed” is a right to by working backward: sifting through the various ways of characterizing the justifications we might give for such an entitlement, and the wrongs suffered when it is violated. I suggest that the best candidate is a claim to appropriate epistemic policies, which I unpack and sketch at the end of the talk.