An epistemic defense of news abstinence
Item Type
Author
Language
English
Abstract
If we have reason to believe that by following the news, we acquire more false beliefs than true ones or we acquire true but irrelevant beliefs, then we may be justified in taking a newsbreak. We are propositionally justified in temporarily ignoring the news either in a domain or from a source if (i) we are in a fake news environment or are justified in believing that we are, and (ii) it is cognitively difficult or time consuming to discriminate genuine from fake news or to obtain genuine news. The defense of news abstinence rests either on reliabilism about justification or the defeasibility theory. When reliabilism is combined with epistemic consequentialism, news abstinence in a fake news environment is not only epistemically permitted but also epistemically required. © Sven Bernecker 2021.
Subject
Motivated ignorance
Blinding
Coverage reliability
Epistemic consequentialism
Epistemic value
Fake news environment
Publication Title
Publication Year
2021
Publication Date
2021
Source
Scopus
License
ISBN
978-0-19-886397-7
Physical Description
pp. 286-309