Evolutionary debunking arguments (EDAs) are arguments that appeal to the evolutionary origins of evaluative beliefs to undermine their justification. This paper aims to clarify the premises and presuppositions of EDAs-a form of argument that is increasingly put to use in normative ethics. I argue that such arguments face serious obstacles. It is often overlooked, for example, that they presuppo...

In earlier work, we introduced flexible infer­ ence and decision-theoretic metareasoning to address the intractability of normative infer­ ence. Here, rather than pursuing the task of computing beliefs and actions with decision models composed of distinctions about uncer­ tain events, we examine methods for inferring beliefs about mathematical truth before an automated theorem prover completes ...

BACKGROUND Evidence-based policy documents that are well developed by senior civil servants and are timely available can reduce the barriers to evidence utilization by health policy makers. This study examined the barriers and facilitators in developing evidence-based health policy documents from the perspective of their producers in a developing country. METHODS In a qualitative study with a...

Comparing the responses of participants in reasoning experiments to the normative standard of Bayes’ Theorem has been a popular empirical approach for almost half a century. One longstanding finding is that people’s belief revision is conservative with respect to the normative prescriptions of Bayes’ Theorem, that is, beliefs are revised less than they should be. In this paper, we consider a no...

In recent years researchers have focused attention on understanding the role of normative factors in influencing behaviors. Although there is some evidence to support the idea that restructuring normative beliefs can result in behavior change, the norms literature is largely silent about how or why this influence occurs. The theory of normative social behavior describes the moderators of the de...

Drawing on the belief-based framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study employs qualitative methodology involving individual and group interviews to examine the beliefs associated with regular physical activity performance among parents of young children (N = 40). The data were analysed using thematic content analysis. A range of advantages (e.g. improves parenting practices), disa...

What is considered to be fair depends on context. Using a modified version of the Ultimatum Game, we demonstrate that both fair behavior and perceptions of fairness depend upon beliefs about what one ought to do in a situation – that is, upon normative expectations. We manipulate such expectations by creating informational asymmetries about the offer choices available to the Proposer, and find ...

OBJECTIVE to identify salient behavioral, normative, control and self-efficacy beliefs related to the behavior of adherence to oral antidiabetic agents, using the Theory of Planned Behavior. METHOD cross-sectional, exploratory study with 17 diabetic patients in chronic use of oral antidiabetic medication and in outpatient follow-up. Individual interviews were recorded, transcribed and content...

Isaac Levi (1980) targets an implicit tension in C.S. Peirce’s epistemology, one that exists between the need to always be open-minded and aware of our propensity to make mistakes so that we do not “block the road of inquiry,” and the need to treat certain beliefs as infallible and to doubt only in a genuine way so that inquiry can proceed in the first place. Attempts at alleviating this tensio...

Cognitive agents must have an explicit representation of their beliefs, desires and goals, and also a ‘theory of mind’ of the other agents. In this paper we propose a cognitive agent model where norms are based on three dimensions. First, we distinguish between agents whose behavior is governed by norms and autonomous normative systems; we call the latter normative agents. Second, we distinguis...