Doxastic Promiscuity

I started writing "Doxastic Promiscuity Considered Harmful" early in the year, and after a lengthy hiatus finally finished it in presentable form. Those with a computer science education may get a laugh out of the title. The essay serves two purposes for me, first to put a stake in the ground on a number of issues, and second simply for writing practice. It is dense and a bit pretentious, but you may also find it fun and interesting. It is too long to simply incorporate here as a blog post, but I've also decided not to try to publish it, as I think it probably covers too much ground too thinly.

In philosophy, the word "doxastic" refers to beliefs, and the idea of this essay is to discuss our human inclination to believe far too easily and frequently, especially in matters of import. This may be apparent to you when reading your Twitter or Facebook feed, to see the wealth of strong opinions in the absence of much real knowledge.