What is good thinking? Comments on Mona Simion’s Shifty Speech and Independent Thought

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mona Simion's Shifty Speech and Independent Thought argues for epistemic independence—the independence of good thinking from practical considerations. Along the way, she argues against “shifty” views of knowledge and knowledge ascriptions, as well as against those who have tried to preserve the independence of knowledge from practical considerations by accepting the dependence of the epistemic normativity of assertion on practical considerations. In my discussion, I start by highlighting some of Simion's main claims and reconstructing her main lines of argument. I then raise some minor concerns about her underlying methodology and some bigger picture concerns about some of her background theoretical assumptions and her argument for epistemic independence.