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Lecture: “Holding on to Extreme Beliefs” by Anne Meylan

Datum evenement: 2 June 2022
Locatie: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Description

On 2 June, 2022, at 15:30 PM, Anne Meylan (University of Zürich) will be giving a talk on Holding on to Extreme Beliefs.

You can register by sending an email to: extremebeliefs.fgw@vu.nl

Sticky Beliefs
Abstract: When you heat water, the boiling point is a punctual state of the water. To believe that p is, most often, not to be in a punctual state. Usually, people maintain their beliefs for some (more or less long period of) time. Beliefs seem to be, in this way, quite inert. In my talk, I first intend to describe this inertness in more detail by relying, between other things, on the empirical literature. In the second part of my talk, I shall distinguish between two ways for a belief to stick: inert beliefs should be differentiated from beliefs to which we hold on. Most importantly, perhaps, while inert beliefs are maintained for epistemic reasons, we hold on to beliefs for practical ones. In this framework, I will also address the question of which kind of sticky beliefs are more suited to describe extreme beliefs.
Anne Meylan

This project is funded by:

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
European Research Council
European Union