ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between epistemic powers and epistemic reasons. It presents the argument to reasons for action, and argues that they also depend upon a more basic trust in the powers of the self. As long as all the human powers that lead to action or belief have ends the attainment of which is not transparent to the mind, a self-reflective person will want a defense of the position that they succeed in reaching their ends. For a long time human powers were invisible in philosophical investigation because of the dominance of a method that made both the observation of powers and the experience of them suspect. Trust has an affective component that dispels doubt. The epistemic self-trust, as a state that includes at least two components: believing that his epistemic powers are suited to getting his the truth, and having a feeling that dispels doubts about their trustworthiness, or holds them at bay.
