<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In her paper “Why Suspend Judging?” Jane Friedman has argued that being agnostic about some question entails that one has an inquiring attitude towards that question. Call this the <italic>agnostic-as-inquirer thesis</italic>. I argue that the agnostic-as-inquirer thesis is implausible. Specifically, I maintain that the agnostic-as-inquirer thesis requires that we deny the existence of a kind of agent that plausibly exists; namely, one who is both agnostic about <italic>Q</italic> because they regard their available evidence as insufficient for answering <italic>Q</italic> and who decides not to inquire into <italic>Q</italic> because they believe <italic>Q</italic> to be unanswerable. I claim that it is not only possible for such an agent to exist, but that such an agent is also epistemically permissible.</p></abstract>

In her paper “Why Suspend Judging?” Jane Friedman has argued that being agnostic about some question entails that one has an inquiring attitude towards that question. Call this the agnostic-as-inquirer thesis. I argue that the agnostic-as-inquirer thesis is implausible. Specifically, I maintain that the agnostic-as-inquirer thesis requires that we deny the existence of a kind of agent that plausibly exists; namely, one who is both agnostic about Q because they regard their available evidence as insufficient for answering Q and who decides not to inquire into Q because they believe Q to be unanswerable. I claim that it is not only possible for such an agent to exist, but that such an agent is also epistemically permissible.

Agnosticism, Inquiry, and Unanswerable Questions

Disputatio

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Agnosticism, Inquiry, and Unanswerable Questions"}

In her paper “Why Suspend Judging?” Jane Friedman has argued that being agnostic about some question entails that one has an inquiring attitude towards that...

Agnosticism, Inquiry, and Unanswerable Questions

Published Online: Nov 21, 2019

Page range: 63 - 88

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2019-0012

Keywords
Agnosticism, suspending judgement, inquiry, unanswerable questions, Jane Friedman

© 2019 Avery Archer, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Agnosticism, Inquiry, and Unanswerable Questions

Published Online: Nov 21, 2019

Page range: 63 - 88

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2019-0012

KeywordsAgnosticism, suspending judgement, inquiry, unanswerable questions, Jane Friedman

© 2019 Avery Archer, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Agnosticism, suspending judgement, inquiry, unanswerable questions, Jane Friedman