mistakes to avoid

Question 1

appeal to origins

Answer 1

• its a mistake to assume that a belief’s originating reasons are epistemic reasons too
• many factors influence what you believe and they don’t all have to be epistemic

Question 2

personalizing reasons

Answer 2

• it’s a mistake to personalize reasons by treating them as if they belonged to someone
• epistemic reasons are universal, objective

Question 3

appeal to relativism

Answer 3

• its a mistake to assume that the truth is relative

- you should assume that realism is the appropriate attitude unless you have powerful reasons not to

Question 4

appeal to emotion

Answer 4

• its a mistake to base our beliefs only on our emotions
• emotional reasons are NOT epistemic
• its a mistake to allow emotions to prevent us from collecting or assessing the evidence we need to make the decisions we must

Question 5

privileging available evidence

Answer 5

• its a mistake to assume that evidence that we currently have is more acceptable or more sufficient than evidence that we might collect

Question 6

appeal to traditions

Answer 6

• its a mistake to believe or do something simply because that belief or practice is traditional