This is very social epistemology, essentially about testimony. Williams believes wishful thinking is a lie to ourselves. In the activity of deception, we not only blame the deceiver but also stress the importance of caution. So improving vigilance in Williams’s perspective matters equally. Self-deception in this sense is a failure because we cannot maintain vigilance on the formation of the beliefs we wish to believe are true. It is an activity that allows us to believe what we wish is true. Accuracy reappears at this point. It is a capacity to monitor our own judgment and to understand what our epistemic limits are.
这是非常社会认识论的内容,本质上关乎证言。威廉姆斯认为,一厢情愿的思维是我们对自己撒的谎。在欺骗活动中,我们不仅谴责欺骗者,也强调谨慎的重要性。因此,在威廉姆斯看来,提高警觉性同样重要。就此意义而言,自我欺骗是一种失败,因为我们无法对希望为真的信念形成过程保持警觉。它是一种让我们相信自己所希望之事为真的活动。准确性在此重新出现。它是一种监控自身判断并理解我们认识论局限的能力。
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