DOXASTIC VOLUNTARISM, EPISTEMIC DEONTOLOGY, AND BELIEF-CONTRAVENING COMMITMENTS

A number of epistemologists have defended doxastic voluntarism, the view that they have voluntary control over what they believe. Defenders of this view allow then for the possibility that they can voluntarily commit themselves to propositions. This appears to include belief-contravening propositions. Here, Shaffer argues that the conjunction of epistemic deontology and doxastic voluntarism as it applies to ordinary cases of belief-contravening propositional commitments is incompatible with canonical formulations of evidentialism--the view that one should only commit to a proposition for which one has adequate evidence. The combination of these views entails practical or deontic contradictions if belief-contravening commitments are understood normally (i.e., as beliefs).