What Is at Stake in the Permissivism Debate?
Miriam Schoenfield (University of Texas-Austin)
Pre-read session.
Abstract: Permissivists claim that there is more than one rational response to a given body of evidence. Impermissivists disagree. But what is really at stake in this disagreement? I'd like to suggest that the answer is far from clear. A certain metaepistemological turn in the debate between permissivists and impermissivists, I'll argue, has reached a kind of impasse. Indeed, I'll suggest, on at least some views, the disagreement between permissivists and impermissivts has gotten dangerously close to being merely verbal.