On Racist Beliefs and Moral Encroachment

Abstract

Abstract This chapter looks at a puzzle about racist beliefs first discussed by Gendler (2011) that motivates some theorists to give up on the thought that beliefs should be evaluated solely with respect to traditional epistemic factors, like what one’s evidence is. According to moral encroachment theorists, moral factors can also be relevant to how we should evaluate beliefs. Moral encroachment views don’t hang together well with truth-loving epistemic consequentialism, even if they are strictly speaking compatible. This chapter argues against moral encroachment by arguing that moral encroachment views can’t satisfactorily reply to Gendler’s puzzle, and it argues that the best reply is the one that truth-loving epistemic consequentialists would most naturally give.