Epistemology of Disagreement: The Good News

We all live out our lives in states of epistemic imperfection. Most obviously, this is true because the evidence on which we base our beliefs is limited. Only a little less obviously, we live in states of epistemic imperfection because we do not always respond to the evidence we have in the best way. Given that our epistemic condition consists in imperfect responses to incomplete evidence, part of being rational involves taking account of these sources of imperfection. Fortunately, each of us is confronted every day by opportunities for epistemic self-improvement. Most frequently, opportunity arrives in the form of evidence that bears directly on the subject matters of our beliefs: hearing the evening weather…