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Allan Hazlett, The Epistemology of Desire and the Problem of Nihilism, Oxford University Press, 2024, 192pp., $90.00 (hbk) ISBN 9780198889830.
Reviewed by Alex Gregory, The University of Southampton, UK
In this excellent book, Hazlett pursues two main goals. First, to defend the idea that desires have accuracy conditions—he says that a desire is accurate only if its object is good. Second, to explain, and provide some kind of solution to, “the problem of nihilism”. What is this problem of nihilism? The basic idea is that if nihilism were true—if nothing were good—then all of our desires would be irrational. But it might seem that even if nihilism were true, it would still be ok to have some desires.
Part of what motivates Hazlett in the first goal above is the idea that epistemology has historically been focused on belief, and made great progress, but similar issues arise with respect to other attitudes, such as…
