Fallibilism: Evidence and Knowledge

Fallibilism: Evidence and Knowledge PDF Author: Jessica Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192521918
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
What strength of evidence is required for knowledge? Ordinarily, we often claim to know something on the basis of evidence which doesn't guarantee its truth. For instance, one might claim to know that one sees a crow on the basis of visual experience even though having that experience does not guarantee that there is a crow (it might be a rook, or one might be dreaming). As a result, those wanting to avoid philosophical scepticism have standardly embraced "fallibilism": one can know a proposition on the basis of evidence that supports it even if the evidence doesn't guarantee its truth. Despite this, there's been a persistent temptation to endorse "infallibilism", according to which knowledge requires evidence that guarantees truth. For doesn't it sound contradictory to simultaneously claim to know and admit the possibility of error? Infallibilism is undergoing a contemporary renaissance. Furthermore, recent infallibilists make the surprising claim that they can avoid scepticism. Jessica Brown presents a fresh examination of the debate between these two positions. She argues that infallibilists can avoid scepticism only at the cost of problematic commitments concerning evidence and evidential support. Further, she argues that alleged objections to fallibilism are not compelling. She concludes that we should be fallibilists. In doing so, she discusses the nature of evidence, evidential support, justification, blamelessness, closure for knowledge, defeat, epistemic akrasia, practical reasoning, concessive knowledge attributions, and the threshold problem.

Fallibilism: Evidence and Knowledge

Fallibilism: Evidence and Knowledge PDF Author: Jessica Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192521918
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book

Book Description
What strength of evidence is required for knowledge? Ordinarily, we often claim to know something on the basis of evidence which doesn't guarantee its truth. For instance, one might claim to know that one sees a crow on the basis of visual experience even though having that experience does not guarantee that there is a crow (it might be a rook, or one might be dreaming). As a result, those wanting to avoid philosophical scepticism have standardly embraced "fallibilism": one can know a proposition on the basis of evidence that supports it even if the evidence doesn't guarantee its truth. Despite this, there's been a persistent temptation to endorse "infallibilism", according to which knowledge requires evidence that guarantees truth. For doesn't it sound contradictory to simultaneously claim to know and admit the possibility of error? Infallibilism is undergoing a contemporary renaissance. Furthermore, recent infallibilists make the surprising claim that they can avoid scepticism. Jessica Brown presents a fresh examination of the debate between these two positions. She argues that infallibilists can avoid scepticism only at the cost of problematic commitments concerning evidence and evidential support. Further, she argues that alleged objections to fallibilism are not compelling. She concludes that we should be fallibilists. In doing so, she discusses the nature of evidence, evidential support, justification, blamelessness, closure for knowledge, defeat, epistemic akrasia, practical reasoning, concessive knowledge attributions, and the threshold problem.

Fallibilism

Fallibilism PDF Author: Jessica Anne Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198801777
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Fallibilists claim that one can know a proposition on the basis of evidence that supports it even if the evidence doesn't guarantee its truth. Jessica Brown offers a compelling defence of this view against infallibilists, who claim that it is contradictory to claim to know and yet to admit the possibility of error.

Fallibilism Democracy and the Market

Fallibilism Democracy and the Market PDF Author: Calvin Hayes
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761819967
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
In Fallibilism Democracy and the Market, Calvin Hayes proposes an original solution to the major meta-theoretical issue in moral philosophy, the is-ought problem, then utilizes it to define and/or solve practical problems in both applied ethics and public policy. The solution and its applications are based on a unified theory of rationality applicable to epistemology, ethics and public policy, predicated on a revised Popperian fallibilism. It is intended as a defense of Karl Popper's political philosophy but only after a substantial revision of its theoretical and meta-theoretical basis.

Fallibilist Solutions to Institutional Problems

Fallibilist Solutions to Institutional Problems PDF Author: John Wettersten
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527580911
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Since Karl Popper‘s fallibilist portrayal of scientific methodology in the 1940s, critical rationalism has developed in many ways, and in many fields. However, some of these developments still leave deep and important possibilities open. One of these is the portrayal of all rational actions as social. This book elucidates the significance of this perspective in regard to psychology, political and social philosophy, the understanding of how scientists can better communicate, and strategies for better living. The importance of the social theory of rationality for psychology arises above all due to the numerous assumptions made in psychological research that rationality is strictly individualist. This is at hand, for example, in its historical portrayal and in important aspects of cognitive psychology. As shown here, these assumptions have damaging consequences for the relationship of rationality with cognitive and social psychology.

The Grace of Being Fallible in Philosophy, Theology, and Religion

The Grace of Being Fallible in Philosophy, Theology, and Religion PDF Author: Thomas John Hastings
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030559165
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Why is epistemic fallibilism a viable topic for Christian thought and cultural engagement today? Religious fundamentalists and scientific positivists tend to deal with reality in terms of “knockdown” arguments, and such binary approaches to lived reality have helped to underwrite the belligerence and polarization that mark this age of the social media echo chamber. For those who want to take both religion and science seriously, epistemic fallibilism offers a possible moderating stance that claims neither too much nor too little for either endeavor, nor forces a decision for one side over and against the other. This book uses this epistemological approach to fallibilism as a positive resource for conversations that arise at the intersection of philosophy, theology, and religion. The essays explore a range of openings into the interstices of these often siloed fields, with the aim of overcoming some of the impasses separating diverse ways of knowing.

A Fallibilist Social Methodology for Today's Institutional Problems

A Fallibilist Social Methodology for Today's Institutional Problems PDF Author: John Wettersten
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527578135
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
This book identifies and explains far-ranging consequences for methodology as a consequence of the observation that all rationality is social, and highlights the need for methodological reforms in publications and interactions among colleagues and research programs. The idea that all rationality is social needs to be part and parcel of all social scientific theories, which means that their content must be changed. Sociology needs to study the impact of social rules, economics must revise assumptions about how individual rationality impacts financial developments, and cognitive psychology must include social dimensions. In addition, there is also a need for moral theories that explain how social standards of behavior can be improved in specific institutional contexts.

Peirce's Pragmatic Theory of Inquiry

Peirce's Pragmatic Theory of Inquiry PDF Author: Elizabeth Cooke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9780826488992
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
A ground-breaking study of one of America's greatest philosophers

Oxford Studies in Epistemology

Oxford Studies in Epistemology PDF Author: Tamar Gendler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198722761
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This work is a major biennial volume offering a regular snapshot of state-of-the-art work in this important field of epistemology. Topics addressed in Volume 5 include knowledge of abstracta, the nature of evidential support, epistemic and rational norms, fallibilism, closure principles, disagreement, the analysis of knowledge, and a priori justification. Papers make use of a variety different tools and insights, including those of formal epistemology and decision theory, as well as traditional philosophical analysis and argumentation

The Appearance of Ignorance

The Appearance of Ignorance PDF Author: Keith DeRose
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192535900
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Contextualism, the view that the epistemic standards a subject must meet in order for a claim attributing "knowledge" to her to be true do vary with context, has been hotly debated in epistemology and philosophy of language during the last few decades. This volume presents, develops, and defends contextualist solutions to two of the stickiest problems in epistemology: the puzzles of skeptical hypotheses and of lotteries. It is argued that, at least by ordinary standards for knowledge, we do know that skeptical hypotheses are false, and that we've lost the lottery. Why it seems that we don't know that they're false tells us a lot, both about what knowledge is and how knowledge attributions work. The Appearance of Ignorance is the companion volume to Keith DeRose's 2009 title The Case for Contextualism: Knowledge, Skepticism, and Context, Volume 1.

The Gettier Problem

The Gettier Problem PDF Author: Stephen Hetherington
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107178843
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Presents a rich and accessible survey of an epistemological problem that continues to challenge philosophers.