Rico Vitz

RESEARCH

DESCRIPTION

My research focuses on themes at the intersection of ethics and epistemology in the works of Rene Descartes and of David Hume.

More specifically, I am currently working on a series of papers in which I elucidate and analyze each of three aspects of Hume's naturalistic psychology of religious belief, including his account of

the originating causes of religious beliefs—that is, those causes that brought religious beliefs into existence in more primitive human societies,
the sustaining causes of religious beliefs—that is, those causes that keep religious beliefs alive in modern human societies, and
the moral consequences of religious beliefs.

PAPERS IN DRAFT

The following papers are available upon request:

Doxastic Virtues as Moral Virtues in Hume's Epistemology
Lies, Captivating Lies, and Religious Belief: Hume on the Learned Elite and 'the Christian Superstition'
Descartes and the Question of Direct Doxastic Voluntarism