Day
16: Setting Up Foundationalism & Coherentism
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The Regress Problem
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Some Possible Responses
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Foundationalism and Coherentism
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Foundationalisms w.r.t. Justification or Knowledge
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Coherentisms w.r.t. Justification or Knowledge
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A Priori
vs. A Posteriori (Empirical)
The Regress Problem
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Assume: for every p and q,
(a) p is justified only if p is inferred
from q; (i.e. one proposition is justified only if it is inferred from another
proposition), and
(b) q must be justified for p to be
justified. (I.e. the inferred proposition can only be justified if the
supporting proposition is justified.)
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What happens if we assume both (a) and (b)?
Some Possible Responses
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Some (though not all) possible responses to the regress problem:
(1) Regress terminates with beliefs that
are not justified.
(2) Regress may terminate with beliefs
that are justified but not in need of further inferential justification
(3) Regress never terminates.
(4) Regress may circle back on itself.
(5) There is a kind of nonlinear or
mutually reinforcing justification that either terminates or dissolves the
regress (both local and non-local variants on this).
Foundationalism and Coherentism
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What are the essential commitments of foundationalism?
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What are the essential commitments of coherentism?
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Are hybrids of the above possible?
Foundationalisms w.r.t. Justification
or Knowledge
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Starting with non-sensory considerations, or sense data or sense
experience, or perceptions of physical objects
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Quality of foundations: infallible, certain, unrevisable, indefeasible,
fallible, uncertain, revisable, defeasible, probabilistic, . . . foundations
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Internalist vs. externalist (eg, reliabilist or causal) foundationalism
Coherentisms w.r.t. Justification or
Knowledge
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Local vs. Global
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What sorts of things contribute to coherence?
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Internalist vs. externalist approaches?
A Priori vs. A Posteriori
(Non-empirical vs. Empirical)
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What is a priori knowledge?
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What is a posteriori knowledge?
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Can you be a foundationalist with respect to one and a coherentist with
respect to the other?