Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-74d7c59bfc-nlwmm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-02-08T19:16:07.046Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reliabilism and its Rivals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2026

Bob Beddor
Affiliation:
University of Florida and University of Johannesburg

Summary

According to reliabilism, whether a belief is justified is a matter of whether it was reliably formed. Reliabilism is one of the leading theories of justification, and it holds important explanatory advantages: it sheds light on the connection between justification and truth, and it offers to situate justification within a naturalistic worldview. However, reliabilism faces well-known problems. One promising strategy for overcoming these problems is to modify reliabilism, combining it with elements of views that have been traditionally regarded as rivals, such as evidentialism. This Element offers an opinionated survey of the prospects for reliabilist epistemology, paying particular attention to recent reliabilist-evidentialist hybrid views.
Get access

Information

Type
Element
Information
Online ISBN: 9781009645485
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 05 February 2026

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Element purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alston, William, 1988, “An Internalist Externalism,” Synthese, 74: 265283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alston, William , 2005, Beyond “Justification”: Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Alston, William , 1995, “How to Think about Reliability,” Philosophical Topics, 23(1): 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, David M., 1973, Belief, Truth and Knowledge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Kelly, 2008, “Epistemic Luck and the Generality Problem,” Philosophical Studies, 139: 353366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beddor, Bob, 2015b, “Evidentialism, Circularity, and Grounding,” Philosophical Studies 172: 18471868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beddor, Bob , 2021, “Reasons for Reliabilism,” In Brown, Jessica and Simion, Mona (eds.), Reasons, Justification, and Defeat. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 146176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beddor, Bob , 2015a, “Process Reliabilism’s Troubles with Defeat,” The Philosophical Quarterly, 65(259): 145159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beddor, Bob and Pavese, Carlotta, 2020, “Modal Virtue Epistemology,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 101(1): 6179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedke, Matthew, 2010, “Developmental Process Reliabilism: On Justification, Defeat, and Evidence,” Erkenntnis, 73(1): 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernecker, Sven, 2008, “Agent Reliabilism and the Problem of Clairvoyance,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 76(1): 164172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, Michael, 2010, “Why the Generality Problem Is Everybody’s Problem,” Philosophical Studies, 151(2): 285298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BonJour, Laurence, 1980, “Externalist Theories of Empirical Knowledge,” Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 5: 5373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, R. A. and Pettigrew, Richard, 2020, “An Accuracy-Dominance Argument for Conditionalization,” Noûs 54(1): 162181. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nous.12258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Jessica and Simion, Mona (eds.), 2021, Reasons, Justification, and Defeat, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, Tyler, 2003. “Perceptual Entitlement,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 67: 503548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, Tyler, 2010, Origins of Objectivity, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick, 1942, “The Problem of the Speckled Hen,” Mind, 51(204): 368373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Stewart, 2003, “Greco’s Agent Reliabilism,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 66(2): 437443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Stewart , 1984, “Justification and Truth,” Philosophical Studies, 46(3): 279295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collett, Thomas and Graham, Paul, 2004, “Animal Navigation: Path Integration, Visual Landmarks, and Cognitive Maps,” Current Biology, 14: R475–R477.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Comesaña, Juan, 2006, “A Well-Founded Solution to the Generality Problem,” Philosophical Studies, 129(1): 2747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comesaña, Juan , 2020, Being Rational and Being Right, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comesaña, Juan , 2010, “Evidentialist Reliabilism,” Noûs, 44(4): 571600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comesaña, Juan , 2018, “Whither Evidentialist Reliabilism?” In Kevin, McCain (ed.), Believing in Accordance with the Evidence: New Essays on Evidentialism. Cham: Springer, pp. 307325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comesaña, Juan , 2002, “The Diagonal and the Demon,” Philosophical Studies, 110(3): 249266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conee, Earl and Feldman, Richard, 2004, Evidentialism: Essays in Epistemology, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conee, Earl and Feldman, Richard , 2008, “Evidence,” In Smith, Quentin (ed.), Epistemology: New Essays, New York: Oxford University Press, 83104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conee, Earl and Feldman, Richard , 1998, “The Generality Problem for Reliabilism,” Philosophical Studies, 89(1): 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douven, Igor, 2013, “Inference to the Best Explanation, Dutch Books, and Inaccuracy Minimization,” The Philosophical Quarterly, 63(252): 428444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, Fred, 1981, Knowledge and the Flow of Information, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dunn, Jeff, 2015, “Reliability for Degrees of Belief,” Philosophical Studies, 172(7): 19291952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Richard, 2002, Epistemology, 1st ed. Boston: Pearson.Google Scholar
Feldman, Richard and Conee, Earl, 2001, “Internalism Defended.” American Philosophical Quarterly, 38(1):118.Google Scholar
Feldman, Richard and Conee, Earl , 1988, “Having Evidence,” In Austin, D. F. (ed.), Essays Presented to Edmund Gettier, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 88104.Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry, 1983, Modularity of Mind, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricker, Elizabeth, 2016, “Unreliable Testimony,” In McLaughlin, Brian P., and Kornblith, Hilary (eds.), Goldman and His Critics, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 88120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fumerton, Richard, 1988, “Foundationalism, Conceptual Regress, and Reliabilism,” Analysis, 48(4): 178184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallistel, Charles R., 2007, “Dead Reckoning, Cognitive Maps, Animal Navigation and the Representation of Space: An Introduction,” In Jeffries, Margaret E. and Yeap, Wai-Kiang (eds.), Robotics and Cognitive Approaches to Spatial Mapping, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Vol 38. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.Google Scholar
Ghijsen, Harmen, 2016, “Norman and Truetemp Revisited Reliabilistically: A Proper Functionalist Defeat Account of Clairvoyance,” Episteme, 13(1): 89110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin, 1967, “A Causal Theory of Knowing,” The Journal of Philosophy, 64(12): 357372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin , 1979 [2012], “What Is Justified Belief?” In Pappas, George S. (ed.), Justification and Knowledge: New Studies in Epistemology, Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 125; reprinted in his Reliabilism and Contemporary Epistemology, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 2949.Google Scholar
Goldman, Alvin , 1986, Epistemology and Cognition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Alvin , 1992, “Epistemic Folkways and Scientific Epistemology,” In his Liaisons: Philosophy Meets the Cognitive and Social Sciences, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 155175.Google Scholar
Goldman, Alvin , 2009, “Williamson on Knowledge and Evidence,” In Pritchard, Duncan and Greenough, Patrick (eds.), Williamson on Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 7391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin , 2011a, “Toward a Synthesis of Reliabilism and Evidentialism,” In Dougherty, (ed.), Evidentialism and Its Discontents, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 254290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin , 2011b, “Commentary on Jack Lyons’ Perception and Basic Beliefs,” Philosophical Studies, 153: 457466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin and Beddor, Bob, 2021, “Reliabilist Epistemology,” In Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/reliabilism/.Google Scholar
Goodman, Jeremy and Salow, Bernhard, 2018, “Taking a Chance on KK,” Philosophical Studies, 175(1): 183196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Peter, 2012, “Epistemic Entitlement,” Noûs, 46(3): 449482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Peter , 2017, “Normal Circumstances Reliabilism,” Philosophical Topics, 45(1): 3361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Peter , 2011, “Perceptual Entitlement and Basic Beliefs,” Philosophical Studies, 153: 467475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Peter , forthcoming, “The New Evil Demon Problem at 40,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.Google Scholar
Graham, Peter and Lyons, Jack, 2021, “The Structure of Defeat: Pollock’s Evidentialism, Lackey’s Framework, and the Prospects for Reliabilism,” In Brown, Jessica and Simion, Mona (eds.), Reasons, Justification, and Defeat. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 146176.Google Scholar
Greco, Daniel, 2014, “Could KK Be OK?Journal of Philosophy, 111(4): 169197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greco, Daniel , 2013, “Prodigality and Probability,” Oxford Studies in Epistemology, 4: 82107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greco, John, 1999, “Agent Reliabilism,” Philosophical Perspectives, 13: 273296.Google Scholar
Greco, John , 2003, “Further Thoughts on Agent Reliabilism: Replies to Cohen, Geivett, Kvanvig, and Schmitt and Lahroodi,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 66(2): 466480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greco, John , 2000, Putting Skeptics in Their Place: The Nature of Skeptical Arguments and Their Role in Philosophical Inquiry, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, Herbert Paul, 1961, “The Causal Theory of Perception,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supp. Vol. xxxv: 121153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grundmann, Thomas, 2009, “Reliabilism and the Problem of Defeaters,” Grazer Philosophische Studien, 79(1): 6576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedden, Brian, 2015, “Time-Slice Rationality,” Mind, 124(494): 449491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jönsson, Martin L., 2013, “A Reliabilism Built on Cognitive Convergence: An Empirically Grounded Solution to the Generality Problem,” Episteme, 10(3): 241268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelp, Christoph, 2019, “How to Be a Reliabilist,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 98: 346374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelp, Christoph , 2016, “Justified Belief: Knowledge First-Style,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 93: 79100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornblith, Hilary, 2002, Knowledge and its Place in Nature, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasonen-Aarnio, Maria, forthcoming, The Good, Bad, and the Feasible: Knowledge and Reasonable Belief, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lasonen-Aarnio, Maria , 2010, “Unreasonable Knowledge,” Philosophical Perspectives, 24: 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, Keith. 1990, Theory of Knowledge, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lewis, David, 1996, “Elusive Knowledge,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74(4): 549567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loughrist, Tim, 2021, “Defeaters and the Generality Problem,” Synthese, 199(5): 1384513860.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, Jack C., 2019, “Algorithm and Parameters: Solving the Generality Problem for Reliabilism,” The Philosophical Review, 128(4): 463509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, Jack C. , 2009, Perception and Basic Beliefs: Zombies, Modules and the Problem of the External World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, Jack C. , 2013, “Should Reliabilists Be Worried about Demon Worlds?Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 86(1): 140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maier, John and Kikkert, Sophie, 2025, “Abilities,” In Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2025 Edition), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2025/entries/abilities/.Google Scholar
Matheson, Jonathan, 2015, “Is There a Well-Founded Solution to the Generality Problem?,” Philosophical Studies, 172(2): 459468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCain, Kevin, 2014, Evidentialism and Epistemic Justification, New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Emelia, 2019, “Liars, Tigers, and Bearers of Bad News, Oh My!: Towards a Reasons Account of Defeat,” The Philosophical Quarterly, 69(274): 8299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, Sarah, 2015, “Time-Slice Epistemology and Action under Indeterminacy,” Oxford Studies in Epistemology, 5: 172194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, Jennifer, 2021, “Losing Knowledge by Thinking about Thinking,” In Brown, Jessica and Simion, Mona (eds.), Reasons, Justification, and Defeat. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 146176.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Michael, 2021, “Accuracy-Dominance and Conditionalization,” Philosophical Studies, 178(10): 32173236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, Robert, 1981, Philosophical Explanations, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Olsson, Erik, 2016, “A Naturalistic Approach to the Generality Problem,” In McLaughlin, Brian P. and Kornblith, Hilary (eds.), pp. 178199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, Mary and Rhodes, Gillian (eds.), 2003, Perception of Faces, Objects, and Scenes: Analytic and Holistic Processes, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Richard, 2021, “What Is Justified Credence?Episteme, 18(1): 1630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podgorski, Abelard, 2017, “Rational Delay,” Philosophers’ Imprint, 17(5): 119.Google Scholar
Pollock, John, 1995, Cognitive Carpentry, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, John , 1987, “Defeasible Reasoning,” Cognitive Science, 11: 481518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, John , 1994, “Justification and Defeat,” Artificial Intelligence, 67: 377408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, John and Cruz, Joseph, 1999, Contemporary Theories of Knowledge, Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Pritchard, Duncan, 2005, Epistemic Luck, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsey, Frank Plumpton, 1931, “Knowledge,” In Braithwaite, Richard Bevan (ed.), Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays, London: Kegan Paul, pp. 126128.Google Scholar
Rosch, Eleanor, Mervis, Carolyn B, Gray, Wayne D, Johnson, David M, and Boyes-Braem, Penny, 1976, “Basic Objects in Natural Categories,” Cognitive Psychology, 8(3): 382439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schechter, Joshua, 2017, “No Need for Excuses: Against Knowledge-First Epistemology and the Knowledge Norm of Assertion,” In Carter, Gordon and Jarvis (eds.), Knowledge-First: Approaches in Epistemology and Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Mark, 2011, “What Does it Take to ‘Have’ a Reason?” In Reisner, Andrew and Steglich-Peterson, Asbjørn (eds.), Reasons for Belief, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 201222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwitzgebel, Eric, 2008, “The Unreliability of Naïve Introspection,” Philosophical Review, 117(2): 245273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simion, Mona, 2019, “Knowledge-First Functionalism,” Philosophical Issues, 29(1): 254267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smithies, Declan, 2014, “The Phenomenal Basis for Epistemic Justification,” In Sprevak, Mark and Kallestrup, Jesper (eds.), New Waves in Philosophy of Mind, London: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 98124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sosa, Ernest, 1999, “How to Defeat Opposition to Moore,” Philosophical Perspectives, 13: 137149.Google Scholar
Sosa, Ernest , 1993, “Proper Functionalism and Virtue Epistemology,” Noûs, 27(1): 5165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutton, Jonathan, 2007, Without Justification, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, Weng Hong, 2016, “Reliability Theories of Justified Credence,” Mind, 125(497): 6394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolly, Jeffrey, 2017, “A Defense of Parrying Responses to the Generality Problem,” Philosophical Studies, 174(8): 19351957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Roger, 2006, “Problems for Dogmatism,” Philosophical Studies, 131(3): 525557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Larry, 1973, “Functions,” The Philosophical Review, 82(2): 139168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, Timothy, forthcoming, “Justification, Excuses, and Sceptical Scenarios,” In Dorsch, Fabian and Dutant, Julien (eds.), The New Evil Demon Problem, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, Timothy , 2000, Knowledge and Its Limits, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

The PDF of this Element complies with version 2.1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), covering newer accessibility requirements and improved user experiences and achieves the intermediate (AA) level of WCAG compliance, covering a wider range of accessibility requirements.

Content Navigation

Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

Reading Order & Textual Equivalents

Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.

Visual Accessibility

Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.

Structural and Technical Features

ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Reliabilism and its Rivals
  • Bob Beddor, University of Florida and University of Johannesburg
  • Online ISBN: 9781009645485
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Reliabilism and its Rivals
  • Bob Beddor, University of Florida and University of Johannesburg
  • Online ISBN: 9781009645485
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Reliabilism and its Rivals
  • Bob Beddor, University of Florida and University of Johannesburg
  • Online ISBN: 9781009645485
Available formats
×