When Is Confidence in Our Way of Living Justified? : On Bernard Williams's Prescription for Anxiety from Contingency

Abstract

What ethics can aim for when it is aware of contingency of our way of living? This article answers this question through interpretation of Bernard Williams's view of confidence. In Section 1 and 2, I support the interpretation that Williams believed that ethics should aim for confidence. In Section 3, I argue that precisely, ethics should aim for not merely confidence, but reasonable or justified confidence. In Section 4, I characterize a way of justification in terms of genealogy. In Section 5, I conclude that we can aim for justified confidence in our contingent way of living, not absolute knowledge, decision, and irony.departmental bulletin pape