University of Sheffield
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2003
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  •  189
    In Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs , Lisa Bortolotti argues that the irrationality of delusions is no barrier to their being classified as beliefs. This comment asks how Bortolotti’s position may be affected if we accept that there are two distinct types of belief, belonging to different levels of mentality and subject to different ascriptive constraints. It addresses some worries Bortolotti has expressed about the proposed two-level framework and outlines some questions that arise for he…Read more
  •  128
    Adaptive misbelief or judicious pragmatic acceptance?
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32 (6): 520. 2009.
    This commentary highlights the distinction between belief and pragmatic acceptance, and asks whether the positive illusions discussed in section 13 of the target article may be judicious pragmatic acceptances rather than adaptive misbeliefs. I discuss the characteristics of pragmatic acceptance and make suggestions about how to determine whether positive illusions are attitudes of this type