Dimensions of Doubt. On the Nature, Logic and History of Doxastic Suspension

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Alexandra Zinke
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441857706

Epistemological research has almost exclusively been concerned with the positive notions of belief and disbelief. The third doxastic possibility, suspension of belief, has barely received focused attention. The project aims at providing the first comprehensive study of doxastic suspension. It divides into four subprojects.SUBPROJECT I: Varieties of Suspension. The subproject explicates the conceptual foundations of suspension of belief. It provides characterizations of the different kinds of suspension, as well as their epistemic grounds and interrelations. For example, we distinguish trivial suspension, i.e. mere non-belief, from more involved forms of suspension, and discuss possible ways to justify the latter. While it is rather uncontentious that suspension serves as the rational fallback position in cases of insufficient evidence, we will also explore the possibility of positive reasons for suspension.SUBPROJECT II: The Logic of Suspension.We discuss the rational profile of the different notions of suspension of belief and aim at providing formal representations of them, e.g. within (precise and imprecise) subjective probability theory and ranking theory. Multiple formal representations might be required to account for the diverse phenomena of doxastic suspension. This would suggest a plurality of degrees of belief. SUBPROJECT III: Suspension and Skepticism.Applying results from the previous subprojects, we analyze the role of suspension in Pyrrhonian and Cartesian skepticism. For instance, we will explore where exactly Pyrrhonian and Cartesian suspension is to be located with respect to recent theories of suspension, and will compare the different ways to justify suspension in the two skeptical traditions. The historical debate also serves as an important reference point for systematic theories of suspension.SUBPROJECT IV: Suspension and Religion. Although the analytic philosophy of religion contains a fair amount of literature on agnosticism, it is not yet linked to the discussion of doxastic suspension in epistemology. We will bring these two strands of discussion together and explore religious agnosticism from the perspective of recent theories of suspension. This makes it possible to make fine-grained distinctions between different notions of agnosticism and to explore their respective justificatory status. We will also discuss the alleged special epistemic status of religious propositions, and existence propositions in general, and possible consequences thereof for systematic theories of suspension.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants