The price of doubt - Nathan, N. M. L. (Routledge, 2001)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-173) and index
"An argument may fail because it is unsound. A trivial conclusion is another fault. Do all the sceptic's arguments have one or both of these deficiencies? This book conjectures that they do. Some sceptical arguments are entirely sound. Some have non-trivial conclusions. But none, it is conjectured, has both of these advantages."
Machine generated contents note: Acknowledgements ix -- Introduction 1 -- I Arguments for ignorance and the negation test 3 -- (1) Inductive ignorance 4 -- (2) The negation test 6 -- (3) Prospectus 16 -- II Demonic arguments 19 -- (1) The soundness of demonic arguments 20 -- (2) The negation test 24 -- (2.1) ENTAILMENT and consensus 26 -- (2.2) INCOHERENCE 28 -- (2.3) Excluding the conjunct 29 -- III Regressive arguments 31 -- (1) The soundness of regressive arguments 31 -- (1.1) Evidentialist arguments 32 -- (1.2) Semi-evidentialist arguments 34 -- (1.2.1) Deductivism 35 -- (1.2.2) Double regression 36 -- (2) The negation test 39 -- (2.1) Knowledge without evidence 40 -- (2.2) Consensual propositions 43 -- IV Evidence-or-acquaintance arguments 50 -- (1) The objectivity of values 51 -- (1.1) Evaluative truth 51 -- (1.2) Dynamic unity 55 -- (2) Theism 63 -- (2.1) Evil 64 -- (2.2) Explanatory exclusion 67 -- V Anti-idealism 71 -- (1) Idealism and Anti-idealism 72 -- (2) Anti-idealism: an evidence-or-acquaintance argument 75 -- (3) The negation test 87 -- VI Arguments against justified belief 93 -- (1) Volitionally justified belief 95 -- (2) Arguments against volitionally justified belief 100 -- (3) The negation test 103 -- VII From rational action to rational belief 108 -- (1) Rational action 109 -- (2) Infinite regression 113 -- (3) Belief shortage 119 -- VIII Arguments against rational belief 124 -- (1) Continuing to believe 125 -- (2) Starting to believe 128 -- (3) Summary 134 -- IX The affirmation test 137 -- Appendix: Semantic objections to demonic arguments 142 -- Notes 149 -- Works cited 169 -- Index 174