PPIG: Philosophy, Psychology, and Informatics Group

Speaker: Professor Rob Rupert

Title: Epistemic Value in the Subpersonal Vale

Abstract: A central and vexing problem in contemporary epistemology concerns the value of knowledge, and in particular, whether and how the value of knowledge exceeds the value of mere (unknown) true belief. The recent literature is deeply divided on the matter of how best to address the problem. There is, however, one point of unquestioned consensus: that if a solution exists, it will be found at the personal level, i.e., the level at which states of whole persons, as such, appear. In this talk, I take exception to the orthodoxy, contending that we should expect to locate the missing source of epistemic value at the subpersonal level. I argue that extant proposed solutions to the problem of epistemic value seem most promising when viewed as proposals concerning subpersonal processes – even if their proponents don’t typically frame them in that way – and I identify two additional subpersonal sources of epistemic value.