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Doxastic Trust And Preemption Theory Essay

Decent Essays

Doxastic trust and Preemption theory support identifying apocalyptic roots through authoritative topoi. The written expression of Doxastic trust is BcA, where B equals belief and A equals a resulting compatible belief. Jaakko Hintikka introduced this formula, explaining, “In all possible worlds compatible with what c Believes, it is the case that A”; A (another belief) follows due to B’s authority, rather than epistemological evidence for A. Scholars writing about Preemption theory move a step further. A person listening to an authoritative speaker and so accepts p (the authoritative speaker’s view or belief on the subject) will supplant his or her own constructs of reason with the speaker’s in any related area. Christoph Jäger and Paul Faulkner (among other scholars) have challenged Doxastic trust and Preemption theory of late, but their questions concern trust development, rather than whether hearer-speaker trust exists. Certain necessary conditions, however, predicate accepting p.
First, trust involves Epistemic Dependence: if H[earer] trusts S[peaker] on O[ccasion—meaning the occasion of the speaker …show more content…

They borrow it; scholars have long understood Pseudonymous writing—a category encompassing most Second Temple apocalyptic work—as writing not just under a famous name, but also assuming the attached authority and trust. Thus, they also borrow epistemic dependence and semantic guidance from the ancient topos. The hearers (or readers) know beliefs may change from reading the text, so the writer must borrow from sufficiently authoritative sources to overcome lingering doubt, leaving available those topoi already accepted by the community whom the authors are addressing. Otherwise, the borne message lacks authority to affect beliefs negating the author’s purpose. Finding authoritative topoi in apocalyptic literature therefore lays bare the influences by which authors make their

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