SSH 105 Study Guide - Final Guide: Gossip Magazine, Apple Pie, White Noise
9 Dec 2017
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Personalizing reasons: it is a mistake to personalize reasons by treating them as if they belonged to someone. That is a mistake because epistemic reasons are universal: if they are reasons for me to believe something, then they are equally reasons for anyone else to believe it. Also, epistemic reasons are objective: whether a piece of evidence is sufficient or acceptable is an objective matter. It has nothing to do with me or with anyone else. Personalizing reasons can obscure the fact that they are universal and objective. Critical thinkers should not ask what are your reasons? but rather what are the reasons? . Appeal to emotion: it is a mistake to base our beliefs only on our emotions. This is a mistake because how a belief makes us feel is not an evidence that the belief is true, and a belief should be based on good epistemic reasons for it to be true.
