Tag Archives: wishfu

Timothy Williamson

[P]hilosophers defending a given position against opponents have a powerful vested interest in persuading themselves that the intuitions that directly or indirectly favour it are stronger than they actually are. The stronger those intuitions, the more those who appeal to them gain, both psychologically and professionally. Given what is known of human psychology, it would be astonishing if such vested interests did not manifest themselves in at least some degree of wishful thinking, some tendency to overestimate the strength of intuitions that help one’s cause and underestimate the strength of those that hinder it.

Timothy Williamson, ‘Philosophical ‘Intuitions’ and Scepticism about Judgement’, Dialectica, vol. 58, no. 1 (March, 2004), p. 110