Intellectual humility for coping

Abstract

This paper examines an approach to coping with persistent hallucination and delusion that the author has found to be more effective than standard ‘reality-testing’.  The approach, characterized as a form of intellectual humility, involves making rapid judgments about one’s experiences, alongside a ready willingness to change those judgments as needed.  The approach thus bears some connection to reality-testing, but may also be seen as partially overlapping with, and emerging from, the consideration of Pyrrhonian skepticism as a path to ‘tranquility’.  The paper addresses an obvious objection to this approach, namely, that it is epistemically irresponsible and inconsistent with a genuine concern for truth.