The nature of doubt and a new puzzle about belief, doubt, and confidence

摘要

Abstract In this paper, I present and defend a novel account of doubt. In Sect. 2, I make some preliminary observations about the nature of doubt. In Sect. 3, I introduce a new puzzle about the relationship between three psychological states: doubt, belief, and confidence. I present this puzzle because my account of doubt emerges as a possible solution to it. Lastly, in Sect. 4, I elaborate on and defend my account of doubt. Roughly, one has doubt if and only if one believes one might be wrong; I argue that this is superior to the account that says that one has doubt if and only if one has less than the highest degree of confidence.