Le GRIN est heureux d’accueillir David Hunter (Ryerson University). Sa présentation s’intitulera Virtuous inferences and virtuous thinkers (Or, sweeping away Broome’s dispositions).

The GRIN is pleased to welcome David Hunter (Ryerson University). The title of his talk is Virtuous inferences and virtuous thinkers (Or, sweeping away Broome’s dispositions).

Résumé/abstract: Following Aristotle, John Broome claims that a mental transition is an inference only if it flows from a prior disposition to perform such transitions. Without the disposition the transition would be passive like digestion as opposed to active like eating. But this comparison and contrast are misleading. Eating, but not reasoning, involves various means and different parts, can be done with a purpose and from a motive, and can be voluntary. And digestion is something that a person does, not something—like muscular cellular mitosis—that merely happens inside her. But whereas digestion is merely contingently involuntary, reasoning is essentially involuntary.  What makes a transition an inference, I argue, are the explanatory links connecting the beliefs involved in it and what makes it active is the self-awareness characteristic of activity.