Gambles between obvious truths

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming)
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Abstract

Counterexamples to knowledge-action links are cases in which, intuitively, you know some proposition but aren’t rational to act accordingly. For example, it’s hard to plausibly deny knowledge of obvious truths like 2 > 1. But when given a choice between betting on 2 > 1 or disjunctions of obvious truths, it seems only rational to bet on the disjunctions, contrary to what knowledge-action links predict. I defend knowledge-action links against this charge. Appearances to the contrary, you should be indifferent between the options in such cases. Any slight increase in value of betting on the initial obvious truth should make you bet on that proposition rather than on the disjunction. But if any slight increase in the value of an option should make you bet on that option, then you never should have bet on the other option. Therefore, as knowledge-action links predict, you should be indifferent between the various options in these cases.

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Jeremy Fantl
University of Calgary

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References found in this work

Knowledge and practical interests.Jason Stanley - 2005 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Knowledge in an uncertain world.Jeremy Fantl & Matthew McGrath - 2009 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Matthew McGrath.
Knowledge and Action.John Hawthorne & Jason Stanley - 2008 - Journal of Philosophy 105 (10):571-590.
The Pragmatic Encroachment Debate.Blake Roeber - 2016 - Noûs 52 (1):171-195.

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