For any doctrine one wishes to believe, there is never a shortage of arguments with which to support it.
Kolakowski's observation, and the epistemic complement of motivated reasoning: the supply of arguments is never the binding constraint on belief, so argument alone rarely changes anyone's mind.
In practice
- A board that has decided to acquire finds four independent justifications by Thursday, and would have found four others for declining.
- A person who wants the job finds the salary, the commute and the culture all point one way, and would have found the reverse had they not wanted it.
- Standing
- The epistemic complement of motivated reasoning.
- Subject
- Science & Epistemology
- Essay
- Paradoxes in the data, and sayings about knowing