E xternalism, represented by process reliabilism,
seems to enjoy two advantages over traditional
foundationalism and coherentism. Unlike those
theories, the process reliabilist has a simple answer
to the challenges posed both by the basing relation
and by Gettier cases.
^With this way of thinking, we can characterize traditional coherentism as the view of justification that involves one type of input—beliefs—
and one type of transition rule—
coherence formation, however coherence theorists are able to make sense of that notion. Traditional foundationalism will have more inputs—beliefs, but also experiences of various types—and more transition rules—deductive inference, inference based on probability, and perhaps various other types of inference.
^The inputs may include not just the variety of inputs that the traditional foundationalist allows, but also nonmental states. The transition rules can also be broader than either coherentism or traditional foundationalism includes. They can encompass the sorts of transitions that foundationalists and coherentists describe—just as long as those transitions are in fact reliable processes in the environments where they’re deployed—but they can also include additional reliable processes not countenanced by the coherentist or foundationalist.
^The input rules involved in both coherentism and foundationalism limit the inputs to justification to states that are internal to your mind—
either beliefs alone or beliefs and other types of mental states, such as experiences. And the transition rules that coherentism and foundationalism allow are supposed to be the sorts of rules that you can recognize, simply through reflection, to be the sorts of rules that promote the discovery of truth.
^In contrast, the input rules in process reliabilism allow for states of your brain and nervous system, other states of your body, or even states of the world outside of your body potentially to serve as inputs to the processes that result in justified beliefs.
I n the case of tax software, there are two kinds of inputs:
one for the type of entry and the other for some number amount.
The transition rules are the rules governing what effect those types of entries and number amounts have on the tax you must pay, and the output of the process is your tax owed or tax refund.
Theories of Knowledge LECTURE 5 externalist Theories of Knowledge
^And as for the transition rules, process reliabilism allows for the possibility that there might be reliable processes leading to the formation of justified beliefs that we cannot know in advance, through reflection alone;
that is, for the process reliabilist, empirical research into the processes that humans (or nonhuman animals) use to discover true information about the world will be relevant in determining whether a certain way of forming beliefs should count as justification or not.
^This means that traditional foundationalism and coherentism are internalist because they stipulate
that the basis for your beliefs must be internal to your mind and that the way your beliefs are justified must be something you can recognize, purely on the basis of reflection, as being a legitimate source of justification.
^Process reliabilism is externalist both because it allows that at least part of the basis of your beliefs may include states outside of your mind and because it allows for the possibility that you might not be able to recognize, on the basis of pure reflection alone, why the actual basis for your beliefs is in fact a legitimate source of justification.
C onsider again that you see the clock read 11:55 and form the belief that you have five minutes to get to your meeting. Remember, the clock has stopped, though you don’t know that it has stopped.
According to both the foundationalist and the
coherentist, you are justified in this case. According to
the process reliabilist, you are not.
Theories of Knowledge LECTURE 5 externalist Theories of Knowledge
^The advantage for process reliabilists is that they have a very simple explanation for why the Gettier case is not a case of knowledge: Although you, looking at the stopped clock, have a true belief in the case where the clock happens to be right, you don’t know because you are not justified.
^The foundationalist and coherentist must give a more complicated
explanation for why Gettier cases don’t amount to knowledge. They’ve offered various explanations, all of which involve adding conditions to the analysis of knowledge. Rather than saying that knowledge is justified true belief and then explaining that justification is understood in terms of either foundationalism or coherentism, they must add an additional condition that explicitly rules out Gettier cases.
]BonJour and Sosa, Epistemic Justification.
Goldman, Epistemology and Cognition.
]
reAdings
yTheories of Knowledge LECTURE 5 externalist Theories of Knowledge
QUIZ
1 TrUe or fAlse
The example of Jeeves the butler provides support for the necessity of a basing relation for knowledge.
2 TrUe or fAlse
The stopped-clock example from Bertrand Russell is an example of a Gettier case that predates Edmund Gettier’s famous article by almost 40 years.
3 TrUe or fAlse
Reliability in psychology means exactly the same thing as it does for philosophers.
4 Which of the following is an externalist theory?
a Descartes’s foundationalism b The coherence theory c Process reliability d All of the above e None of the above
]
Answer key can be found on page 207.
yTheories of Knowledge LECTURE 5 QUIZ