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Adaptive misbelief or judicious pragmatic acceptance?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Keith Frankish
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK7 6AA, United Kingdom. k.frankish@open.ac.ukhttp://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/philos/frankish.htm

Abstract

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.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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