Une évaluation de l’approche constitutiviste pour fonder l’anti-pragmatisme à propos des raisons de croire
This thesis, which pertains to the philosophical domain of inquiry called the ethics of belief, at the crossroads of philosophy of mind, epistemology and ethics, aims at assessing the viability of an influent argumentative strategy in favour of anti-pragmatism about reasons for belief. According to anti-pragmatism, there are no practical normative reasons for belief. The constitutivist strategy, as I call it, purports to show that anti-pragmatism is true by appealing to constitutive, intrinsic features of belief. The aim of this thesis is double: first, it is to give a portrait of the landscape of constitutivist arguments against practical reasons for belief. Second, it is to evaluate the merits of these arguments. In order to do so, I present a critical analysis of the two main constitutivist arguments that is grounded in recent works about the aim of belief, raisons for belief and epistemic norms. My conclusion is that the constitutivist strategy suffers from serious defects which threaten its viability.
Philosophy Reasons for belief Ethics of belief Aim of belief Doxastic deliberation Aim of belief Epistemology Norm of belief