Another answer comes from fallibalism, the creation of Sir Karl Popper. According to this, we can believe pretty much what we like, as long as we specify the conditions under which we would give up that belief. And then do give it up when those conditions are met (though faute de mieux we may have to carry on using it in practice). Fallibalist sins are things like dogmatism, faith, commitment, stubbornness, lack of imagination and blind acceptance. Fallibalism cannot be finessed because it's binary: you're either willing to give up your beliefs or not.
Does it matter if someone commits one of these intellectual sins? If the sinners are bringing their children up believing nonsense, that matters to the kids and the parents if the nonsense puts them at a competitive disadvantage in the job or marriage market, and to the rest of us if we have to deal with the kids. If the sinners are widely-read (e.g. Daily Mail columnists) we may have to listen to their nonsense second-hand. There's a pollution factor, in other words. If the sinners are at the Policy Table, they may well get in the way of a better compromise, or if the rest of the people at the Table are spineless, the bigots may prevail. So we get bad policies - which may ruin a lot of people's lives.
Both fallibalism and justificationism assume that people will accept the facts as given, even if they don't accept the alleged consequences of those facts. There is a sin against this assumption, and that's denial. Epistemologists have not written much about denial, and for about the same reason they haven't written much about propaganda and advertising: it's an activity based on the very reverse of knowledge-gathering. There are two kinds of denial: the classic psychoanalytical denial of the addict, drunk, abuser and generalised screw-up, and the denial of the politician and corporate manager. Managerial denial is knowing that something is not true, but behaving publicly as if it is true and requiring everyone else to go along with that lie. Classic denial is either refusing to accept the truth or refusing to accept its importance and forcing everyone else to go along with that refusal. Classic denial is that Daddy doesn't have a drinking problem while hefting him upstairs after he's passed out: managerial denial is pretending that a few online courses constitute valuable training. If you're considering denial as a choice, remember that your staff may prefer to think you're dumb rather than devious.
Denial is a sin because it prevents other people from understanding a chunk (usually an important one, like family, or employing organisation) of their world correctly. Usually it distorts not only our view of our world, but worse, our view of ourselves ("Now look what you did, he's drinking again" - you know what? It was nothing to do with you.) It takes up huge amounts of energy - just think of how much effort goes into all that corporate internal PR / HR bullshit - and thus prevents other useful things being done (when you're in some company denial-fest, you're not doing something useful).
Sadly, as I've remarked before and will do again, the English consider denial to be a desirable state of mind - if the English weren't in denial about the quality of life in England they would go on the rampage in a week. They will make any excuse for those who foist their denial on those around them - presumably as a fellow courtesy. Those of use whose lives have been truly screwed by the denial of ourselves and others know it is the worst of all intellectual sins. That's why I get so het up when I'm on the receiving end of it.
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