ONLINE FIRST
published on September 23, 2025
Alireza Kazemi
https://doi.org/10.5840/tht202591951
The Epistemic, the Zetetic, and the Wrong Kind of Reasons
Jane Friedman has famously argued that there are cases where the norms of inquiry¡ªthe zetetic norms¡ªcome into conflict with certain widely accepted epistemic norms and that this calls for reconsidering the place of such familiar epistemic norms. I discuss this alleged tension and show that it has all the features of the paradigmatic examples of the so-called wrong kind of reasons. If this is correct, then like other cases where we have the wrong kind of reasons, such reasons cannot require a change in the way we practice epistemology. I also show how skepticism about the wrong kind of reasons can provide a novel way to argue that there is no tension between the zetetic norms and familiar epistemic norms.