PHI 3398 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Robert Andrews Millikan, Philip Pettit, Observational Error
5 Dec 2013
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This is the device that enables some dispositions to be preferred to others. The proposal here parallels certain versions of the dispositional theory of color, and useful lessons can be gained from considering that. According to a crude dispositional theory of color, an object is, say, red, if and only if observers have the disposition to judge it as red. But that crude form of the theory is hopeless. Some observers are color-blind; some circumstances, for instance colored lighting, will distort the color judgments even of someone who is not. So a more 5 plausible dispositional account of red will say that an object is red if and only if competent observers in favorable circumstances have the disposition to judge it as red. This makes the account more plausible; and it re-introduces the possibility of error. Yet it raises a difficulty, that of specifying what competent observers and favorable circumstances are.
