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Should You Believe What You Hear?
Should You Believe What You Hear? Dr. Allan Hazlett Much of what we think about the world we believe on the basis of what other people say. But is this trust in other people's testimony justified? This week, we’ll investigate how this question was addressed by two great philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume (1711 - 1776) and Thomas Reid (1710 - 1796). Hume and Reid's dispute about testimony represents a clash between two worldviews that would continue to clash for centuries: a skeptical and often secular worldview, eager to question everything (represented by Hume), and conservative and often religious worldview, keen to defend common sense (represented by Reid). Part One - Introduction: Hume on Testimony and Miracles Testimony and believing what others tell you. Enlightenment 1700-1800 Intellectual autonomy Hume – Essays on Miracles “there is no species of reasoning more common, more useful, and even necessary to human life, than that which is derived from the testimony of men” What is distinctive of "naturalistic" approaches to philosophy? (Select all that apply.) No appeal to, or reliance on, the notion of Nature. No appeal to, or reliance on, the notion of supernatural phenomena No appeal to, or reliance on, the notion of God No appeal to, or reliance on, the notion of human societies. Never believe a miracle based upon testimony Assumption of testimony: You have to have evidence that the person is speaking is likely to be right. Evidentialism – “A wise man…proportions his belief to the evidence.” Which of the following captures Hume's assumption about basing beliefs on testimony? To properly base a belief on testimony, you must have independent evidence that testimony is true. -
A Dispositional, Internalist, Evidentialist Virtue Epistemology
This is a repository copy of A Dispositional, Internalist, Evidentialist Virtue Epistemology. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94260/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Byerly, T.R. (2014) A Dispositional, Internalist, Evidentialist Virtue Epistemology. Logos and Episteme : an International Journal of Epistemology, V (4). pp. 399-424. ISSN 2069-3052 Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ A Dispositional Internalist Evidentialist Virtue Epistemology This paper articulates and defends a novel version of internalist evidentialism which employs dispositions to account for the relation of evidential support. In section one, I explain internalist evidentialist views generally, highlighting the way in which the relation of evidential support stands at the heart of these views. I then discuss two leading ways in which evidential support has been understood by evidentialists, and argue that an account of support which employs what I call epistemic dispositions remedies difficulties arguably faced by these two leading accounts. -
Bi-Level Evidentialism and Reformed Apologetics
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Asbury Theological Seminary Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers Volume 11 Issue 3 Article 2 7-1-1994 Bi-Level Evidentialism and Reformed Apologetics Michael L. Czapkay Sudduth Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy Recommended Citation Sudduth, Michael L. Czapkay (1994) "Bi-Level Evidentialism and Reformed Apologetics," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 11 : Iss. 3 , Article 2. Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol11/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. BI-LEVEL EVIDENTIALISM AND REFORMED APOLOGETICS Michael L. Czapkay Sudduth In this paper I apply William Alston's "epistemic level distinctions" to the debate between evidentialist and anti-evidentialist approaches to Christian apologetics in the Reformed tradition. I first clarify the nature of this debate by showing that it rests fundamentally on a tension between the desire to have a comprehensive Christian apologetic and the belief that the Holy Spirit plays a special epistemic role in belief-formation, such that certain beliefs are formed and justified by conditions unique to Christian religious experi ence. Secondly, I argue that even if S's belief that p is immediately justified (through such privileged modes of belief-formation), (I) an evidentialist requirement can be placed on the higher-level belief that P* (p is immediately justified) and (2) apologetics can draw on the reasons which confer justifi cation on P*, thereby providing indirect support for p. -
Making It Evident: Evidence and Evidentness, Justification and Belief
1 Making it Evident: Evidence and Evidentness, Justification and Belief “We give the name of evidence to whatever is the ground of belief.” (Reid IP II 20, W 328a1) “A proposition is epistemically justified to someone when it is evident to that person that the proposition is true.” (Conee 1992, 252) “…a central function of evidence is to make evident that which would not be so in its absence” (Kelly 2006, §3). 1. Introduction As usually stated, evidentialism constitutes the outline of a theory: supposing that justification of the sort required for knowing is solely a function of one’s evidence,2 a well-developed evidentialist theory will tell us what sorts of things constitute one’s evidence, what it is to have evidence, what it is for evidence to support a given belief or proposition, and so on. But whether or not evidentialism is true such questions merit attention. For whether or not evidentialism is true evidence remains a central epistemological concept. Answering questions concerning evidence, however, is made more difficult by the fact that it is often asked to play roles in addition to that (/those) featured by evidentialism. And while one would like (other things equal) to provide a unified account of a given concept or phenomenon, as Thomas Kelly (2006) has documented some of the roles that evidence has been thought to play stand in apparent tension to each other; the result is that it’s not clear whether a single theory can fit everything we want to say about evidence. The present paper offers partial and tentative answers to questions like those posed above, while attempting too to move towards a resolution of the apparent tensions Kelly describes. -
Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge
Toward a Unified Knowledge-based Society for Sustainability—Developing a Synthesis on the Methodological Level Alec A. Schaerer Abstract—The debates on development manifest an increasing concern for sustainability, but as yet little awareness of the hierarchy in the ideas through which humans contribute to the problem. This gap is widened by a widespread but nevertheless unnecessary acceptance of unreasonable elements such as paradoxes, or the general fragmentation in knowledge, or allegedly general limits to it. First the character of such impediments is assessed, partly in theoretical considerations and partly through examples. This analysis reveals the root of a widespread self-limitation in thinking. Understanding its structure allows to synthesize an approach in which the problems do on principle not arise. It is conceptually precise but nevertheless universally applicable within the chosen query perspective, and hence useful for unifying knowledge toward a general sustainability of development. Outlining the Problem in unison that certainty and completeness of view are unattainable ideals. Are we thus left only with the ‘choice’ The contemporanean social sciences describe an as- of more measurements and more rules? Since these al- tonishing feature: in the known period of history, there ways stem from mere perspectives and can never cover has never been as much activity in international relations all cases, they can never warrant ultimate objectivity. as now; and yet since a few decades the common of Somebody will always attack them, feeling sufficiently mortals feels increasingly insecure (see for example Beck justified by being limited. Is strife and conflict therefore [1992], [1999], Frank [2002], Landes [1999], Monbiot inescapably our lot? Acting out this belief produces more [2000], Stiglitz [2002]). -
An Ontological Objection to the Causal Theory of Action
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2018 Actions Are Not Events: An Ontological Objection to the Causal Theory of Action Jiajun Hu University of Tennessee, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Hu, Jiajun, "Actions Are Not Events: An Ontological Objection to the Causal Theory of Action. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2018. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5008 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Jiajun Hu entitled "Actions Are Not Events: An Ontological Objection to the Causal Theory of Action." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Philosophy. David W. Palmer, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Richard E. Aquila, Eldon F. Coffman Jr., Bruce J. MacLennan Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Actions Are Not Events: An Ontological Objection to the Causal Theory of Action A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Jiajun Hu August 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Jiajun Hu. -
Goldman and Siegel on the Epistemic Aims of Education
Goldman and Siegel on the epistemic aims of education Alessia Marabini & Luca Moretti [email protected] [email protected] First Draft (April 25, 2018) ABSTRACT Philosophers have claimed that education aims at fostering disparate epistemic goals––for instance: knowledge, true belief, understanding, epistemic character, critical thinking. In this paper we focus on an important segment of the debate involving conversation between Alvin Goldman and Harvey Siegel. Goldman claims that education is essentially aimed at producing true beliefs. Siegel contends that education is essentially aimed at fostering both true beliefs and, independently, rational beliefs. We summarize and criticize the arguments from both sides. We find Siegel’s position intuitively more plausible than Goldman’s, but we also find Siege’s defence of it wanting. We suggest a novel argumentative strategy on Siegel’s behalf that goes from general epistemology to epistemology of education. (shrink) KEYWORDS: epistemic aims of education, epistemic aims, epistemic rationality, critical thinking, testimony, deontological justification, Alvin Goldman, Harvey Siegel 1. What we do in the paper The debate on the epistemic aims or goals of education is very hot and on-going. Philosophers have claimed that education aims at fostering disparate epistemic goals––for instance: knowledge, true belief, understanding, epistemic character, critical thinking (for an introduction see Carter and Kotzee 2015: §6). In this paper we focus on an important segment of the debate involving conversation between Alvin Goldman and Harvey Siegel. Goldman claims that education is essentially aimed at producing true beliefs. Siegel contends that education is essentially aimed at fostering both true beliefs and, independently, rational beliefs. -
Evidentialism and the Great Pumpkin Objection
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 8/8/2011, SPi 7 Evidentialism and the Great Pumpkin Objection Michael Bergmann Evidentialism, as understood by its chief contemporary proponents (i.e. Richard Feldman and Earl Conee), is the view that epistemic justification supervenes on the evidence one has1—whether that evidence is other beliefs or experiences or feelings. Earl Conee argues that, unlike other views, evidentialism has a response to skepticism about the external world that escapes what can be called ‘the Great Pumpkin Objection’.2 That objection says, of a response to skepticism, that those endorsing a silly view—such as the view that the gift-delivering Great Pumpkin rises each Halloween over the most sincere pumpkin patch—can offer exactly parallel responses to those who are skeptical of their Great Pumpkin beliefs.3 The obvious suggestion is that if one’s response to skepticism about the external world can be mimicked by those defending such a silly view, then that response to skepticism is inadequate. There are two main ways to respond to the Great Pumpkin Objection when it is applied to your favored response to some sort of skepticism. You could say that the allegedly parallel response offered by those defending belief in a silly view does not successfully mimic your favored response to skepticism. Or you could admit that it does successfully mimic your favored response to skepticism and yet deny that this implies 1 Conee and Feldman (2004: 1). Note that this use of the term ‘evidentialism’ is different from the way it is sometimes used in philosophy of religion to refer to the view that belief in God can be made rational or justified only on the basis of propositional evidence. -
Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes Technical Guide for Forest Service Land and Resource Management, Planning, and Decisionmaking
United States Department of Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes Agriculture Forest Service Technical Guide for Forest Pacific Northwest Research Station Service Land and Resource General Technical Report Management, Planning, and PNW-GTR-788 Decisionmaking June 2009 Stewart D. Allen, Denise A. Wickwar, Fred P. Clark, Robert R. Dow, Robert Potts and Stephanie A. Snyder The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is dedicated to the principle of multiple use management of the Nation’s forest resources for sus- tained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with the States and private forest owners, and manage- ment of the national forests and national grasslands, it strives—as directed by Congress—to provide increasingly greater service to a growing Nation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (800) 795- 3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. -
Epistemic Divergence and the Publicity of Scientific Methods
Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. 34 (2003) 597–612 www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsa Epistemic divergence and the publicity of scientific methods Gualtiero Piccinini Department of Philosophy, Washington University, Campus Box 1073, One Brookings Dr., St Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA Received 20 May 2002; received in revised form 24 November 2002 Abstract Epistemic divergence occurs when different investigators give different answers to the same question using evidence-collecting methods that are not public. Without following the principle that scientific methods must be public, scientific communities risk epistemic divergence. I explicate the notion of public method and argue that, to avoid the risk of epistemic divergence, scientific communities should (and do) apply only methods that are public. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Epistemic divergence; Public method; Intersubjective test; Reliabilism; Method of possible cases The activities of the sciences that are taught are things that can be seen and there is none that is not visible in one form or another. Hippocrates1 1. Introduction Scientific statements must be intersubjectively testable. If evidence for a statement cannot be obtained by different investigators, then neither the evidence nor the state- ment are scientific. Classical defenses of this principle have been given by Herbert E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Piccinini). 1 In The Science of Medicine, anciently attributed to Hippocrates. 0039-3681/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0039-3681(03)00049-9 598 G. Piccinini / Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. 34 (2003) 597–612 Feigl (1953, p. 11), Carl Hempel (1952, p. 22), Immanuel Kant (1965, p. -
The Prospects of Evidentialism Trent Dougherty (Ed.): Evidentialism and Its Discontents
Metascience DOI 10.1007/s11016-013-9764-8 BOOK REVIEW The prospects of evidentialism Trent Dougherty (ed.): Evidentialism and its discontents. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011 xii+336pp, £45.00 HB Mark P. Newman Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 This is a collection of sixteen essays, mostly written by well-established epistemologists, providing insightful criticism and constructive recommendations on Earl Conee and Richard Feldman’s epistemology. The essays are organized under the following topics: disagreement; virtue critique; skepticism; knowledge; internalism; evidence; and synthesis with other accounts. Each paper comes with a response from Conee and Feldman. Overall the collection provides a useful, although somewhat jumbled picture of issues facing evidentialism. Whether one is favorable to the position or not, these essays are important reading for any philosopher struggling with epistemic justification. The collection starts with a very useful historical-conceptual introduction to evidentialism from the editor Trent Dougherty. He draws on the most recent formulations from Conee and Feldman who articulate their position in several ways. The most commonly cited is from their book Evidentialism: EJ: Doxastic attitude D towards proposition p is epistemically justified for S at t if and only if having D toward p fits the evidence S has at the time. They also have a more recent supervenience formulation of evidentialism from their article ‘Evidence’ (2008): SE: Necessarily, if S1 is justified in believing p, and E is the evidence that S1 has, then necessarily (1) on balance E supports p, and (2) if E is the evidence that S2 has, then S2 is justified in believing p. -
JUSTIFIED BELIEF AS RESPONSIBLE BELIEF Richard
JUSTIFIED BELIEF AS RESPONSIBLE BELIEF Richard Foley The concepts of justified, warranted, and epistemically rational belief, along with the notion of knowledge, form the core subject matter of epistemology. Despite their centrality, these concepts are used in the literature in strikingly different ways and often with little regard for how they interrelate. In what follows, I will be making recommendations for how to understand and distinguish these three concepts. The account I will be developing situates the concept of epistemically rational belief into a well-integrated and philosophically respectable general theory of rationality; it links the concept of warranted belief with the theory of knowledge; and it insists that the concept of justified belief should be relevant to the assessments of each other's beliefs that we are most interested in making in our everyday lives, namely, assessments where the focus is not so much on whether one has fulfilled all the prerequisites of knowledge but rather on whether one has been a responsible believer. These are the conclusions I will be moving towards, but the place to begin is with a quick history of recent epistemology. In his influential 1963 article, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”,1 Edmund Gettier designed a pair of counterexamples to show that knowledge cannot be defined as justified true belief. Gettier pointed out that one can be justified in believing a falsehood from which one deduces a truth , in which case one has a justified true belief but does not have knowledge. His article started a search for a fourth condition of knowledge, which could be added to justification, truth, and belief to produce an adequate analysis of knowledge.