I think you’re dismissing the “tautological” cases too easily. If you don’t believe in a philosophy, their standards will often seem artificially constructed to validate themselves. For example a simple argument that pops up from time to time:
Fallibilist: You can never be totally certain that something is true.
Absolutist: Do you think thats true?
F: Yes.
A: See, you’ve just contradicted yourself.
Obviously F is unimpressed by this, but if he argues that you can believe things without being certain of them, thats not that different from Beth saying she wrote the book by responding to stimuli to someone not already believing their theory.
I think you’re dismissing the “tautological” cases too easily. If you don’t believe in a philosophy, their standards will often seem artificially constructed to validate themselves. For example a simple argument that pops up from time to time:
Fallibilist: You can never be totally certain that something is true.
Absolutist: Do you think thats true?
F: Yes.
A: See, you’ve just contradicted yourself.
Obviously F is unimpressed by this, but if he argues that you can believe things without being certain of them, thats not that different from Beth saying she wrote the book by responding to stimuli to someone not already believing their theory.