# How to lose your memory without losing your money: shifty epistemology and Dutch strategies

## TL;DR

The paper argues that certain flexible belief systems can lead to guaranteed losses, indicating irrationality, unlike forgetful agents.

## Contribution

It clarifies why shifty epistemologies uniquely lead to irrationality through guaranteed losses.

## Key findings

- Shifty epistemologies can result in guaranteed losses that indicate irrationality.
- Forgetful agents can also face guaranteed losses without being irrational.
- A taxonomy of shifty epistemologies is proposed.

## Abstract

An objection to shifty epistemologies such as subject-sensitive invariantism is that it predicts that agents are susceptible to guaranteed losses. Bob Beddor (Analysis, 81, 193–198, 2021) argues that these guaranteed losses are not a symptom of irrationality, on the grounds that forgetful agents are susceptible to guaranteed losses without being irrational. I agree that forgetful agents are susceptible to guaranteed losses without being irrational– but when we investigate why, the analogy with shifty epistemology breaks down. I argue that agents with shifty epistemologies are susceptible to guaranteed losses in a way which is a symptom of irrationality. Along the way I make a suggestion about what it takes for an agent to be coherent over time. I close by offering a taxonomy of shifty epistemologies.