What is incoherence?What is incoherence?

We can all be inconsistent. Philosophy illuminates a bigger puzzle: how do we hold contradictory beliefs at the same time?We can all be inconsistent. Philosophy illuminates a bigger puzzle: how do we hold contradictory beliefs at the same time?

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I hate going to the mall. When I visit, I’m filled with a sense of existential dread. I’m overwhelmed by the sheer number of products, left with a sense that I should buy either all of them or none of them – somehow, it seems that there is no practicable way to select just one or two. A few years ago, I decided: enough. I formed the intention never to visit the mall again. From then on, it was to be only online ordering for me – never mind the number of returns I’d have to make when it turned out that I’d guessed wrong again about whether to order a sweater in a medium or a large.

We think that part of what it is to believe that it’s raining is to deny claims like ‘it’s not raining’We think that part of what it is to believe that it’s raining is to deny claims like ‘it’s not raining’

Reporting one’s own incoherent states aloud in speech seems a lot stranger than merely being incoherentReporting one’s own incoherent states aloud in speech seems a lot stranger than merely being incoherent

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