Agency and Objectivity

Anil Gomes argues in The Practical Self that we must have faith that we are doxastic agents, sustained by commitment to an objective social world. I argue Gomes needs evidence he denies himself. Descartes, whom Gomes rejects, provides what’s missing: we gain defeasible evidence both for objectivity and agency by perceiving them clearly. I reconstruct overlooked Cartesian insights, including his Commonsense Realism. Finally, while Gomes invokes Lichtenberg’s “lightning” to question doxastic agency, I show that Lichtenberg equally addressed passivity in creative insight. The lesson: we need evidence for passivity no less than agency and objectivity—and Cartesian clarity provides it

Agency (philosophy) · CLARITY · Defeasible estate · Denial · Doxastic logic · Faith · Objectivity (philosophy) · Omniscience · Free Will and Agency · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy and Theoretical Science

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