Doxastic Logic - Inconsistency and Peculiarity of Conceited Reasoners

Inconsistency and Peculiarity of Conceited Reasoners

A reasoner of type 1 is faced with the statement "I will never believe this sentence." The interesting thing now is that if the reasoner believes he or she is always accurate, then he or she will become inaccurate. Such a reasoner will reason: "If I believe the statement then it will be made false by that fact, which means that I will be inaccurate. This is impossible, since I'm always accurate. Therefore I can't believe the statement: it must be false."

At this point the reasoner believes that the statement is false, which makes the statement true. Thus the reasoner is inaccurate in believing that the statement is false. If the reasoner hadn't assumed his or her own accuracy, he or she would never have lapsed into an inaccuracy.

It can also be shown that a conceited reasoner is peculiar.

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