Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:57:48.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

EVIDENCE AND FALLIBILITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2017

Joshua DiPaolo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The “Evidentialist Dictum” says we must believe what our evidence supports, and the “Fallibility Norm” says we must take our fallibility into account when managing our beliefs. This paper presents a problem for the Evidentialist Dictum based in the Fallibility Norm and a particular conception of evidential support. It then addresses two novel Evidentialist responses to this problem. The first response solves the problem by claiming that fallibility information causes “evidence-loss.” In addition to solving the problem, this response appears to explain what's wrong with certain illegitimate dismissals of misleading evidence. However, this explanation opens it up to objections. Next, I consider and pose challenges to an Evidentialist strategy that attempts to solve the problem by converting accounts of fallibility's epistemic significance for rational belief into principles of evidential support. I conclude by sketching a solution that allows us to capture what's true in the Evidentialist Dictum and the Fallibility Norm.

Type
Articles
Information
Episteme , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 39 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Alston, W. 1988. ‘The Deontological Conception of Justification.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 2: 257–99.Google Scholar
Ballantyne, N. and Coffman, E.J. 2011. ‘Uniqueness, Evidence and Rationality.’ Philosophers’ Imprint, 11: 1–13.Google Scholar
Chisholm, R. 1963. ‘Contrary-to-Duty Imperatives and Deontic Logic.’ Analysis, 24: 33–6.Google Scholar
Christensen, D. 2007. ‘The Epistemology of Disagreement: The Good News.’ Philosophical Review, 116: 187–217.Google Scholar
Christensen, D. 2010. ‘Higher-Order Evidence.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 81: 185–215.Google Scholar
Christensen, D. 2011. ‘Disagreement, Question-Begging, and Epistemic Self-Criticism.’ Philosopher's Imprint, 11: 1–22.Google Scholar
Christensen, D. 2013. ‘Epistemic Modesty Defended.’ In Christensen, D. and Lackey, J. (eds) The Epistemology of Disagreement: New Essays, pp. 77–97. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Conee, E. and Feldman, R. 2004. Evidentialism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Conee, E. and Feldman, R. 2008. Evidence. In Smith, Q. (ed.) Epistemology: New Essays, pp. 83–104. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DiPaolo, J. 2016. ‘Higher-Order Defeat is Object-Independent.’ Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. doi: 10.1111/papq.12155.Google Scholar
DiPaolo, J. ms. ‘Fallibility and Normativity.’Google Scholar
Dretske, F. 2000. ‘Entitlement: Epistemic Rights without Epistemic Duties?’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 60: 591–606.Google Scholar
Elga, A. 2007. ‘Reflection and Disagreement.’ Noûs, 41: 478–502.Google Scholar
Elga, A. 2010. ‘How to Disagree about How to Disagree.’ In Feldman, R. and Warfield, T. (eds), Disagreement, pp. 175–86. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Elga, A. 2013. ‘The Puzzle of the Unmarked Clock.’ Philosophical Studies, 164: 127–39.Google Scholar
Elga, A. ms. ‘Lucky to be Rational.’Google Scholar
Fantl, J. and McGrath, M. 2009. Knowledge in an Uncertain World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. 2000. ‘The Ethics of Belief.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 60: 667–95.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. 2005. ‘Respecting the Evidence.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 19: 95–119.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. 2007. ‘Reasonable Religious Disagreement.’ In Antony, L. (ed.), Philosophers without Gods, pp. 194–214. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. 2009. ‘Evidentialism, Higher-Order Evidence, and Disagreement.’ Episteme, 6: 294–312.Google Scholar
Field, H. 2000. ‘Apriority as an Evaluative Notion.’ In Boghossian, P. and Peacocke, C. (eds), New Essays on the A Priori, pp. 117–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. 1978. ‘Epistemics: The Regulative Theory of Cognition.’ Journal of Philosophy, 75: 509–23.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. 1979/1992. ‘What is Justified Belief?’ In Pappas, G. (ed.), Justification and Knowledge. Reprinted in Liaisons, 1992, pp. 105–26. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Greco, D. 2012. ‘The Impossibility of Skepticism.’ Philosophical Review, 121: 317–58.Google Scholar
Harman, G. 1973. Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hawthorne, J. 2005. Knowledge and Lotteries. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, D. 1978. A Treatise of Human Nature, 2nd edition. Nidditch, P. H. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, D. 1999. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Beauchamp, T. L. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, T. 2005. ‘The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement.’ Oxford Studies in Epistemology vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, T. 2010. ‘Peer Disagreement and Higher Order Evidence.’ In Feldman, R. and Warfield, T. (eds), Disagreement, pp. 111–74. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, T. 2013. ‘Disagreement and the Burdens of Judgment.’ In Christensen, D. and Lackey, J. (eds), The Epistemology of Disagreement: New Essays, pp. 31–53. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kornblith, H. 2010. ‘Belief in the Face of Controversy.’ In Feldman, R. and Warfield, T. (eds), Disagreement, pp. 29–52. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kripke, S. 1971/2011. ‘Two Paradoxes of Knowledge.’ In Philosophical Troubles: Collected Papers, Vol. 1. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lasonen-Aarnio, M. 2014. ‘Higher-Order Evidence and The Limits of Defeat.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 88: 314–45.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1971. ‘Immodest Inductive Methods.’ Philosophy of Science, 38: 54–63.Google Scholar
Lord, E. 2014. ‘From Independence to Conciliationism: An Obituary.’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 92: 365–77.Google Scholar
Lycan, W. 1975. ‘Occam's Razor.’ Metaphilosophy, 6: 223–37.Google Scholar
Lycan, W. 1985. ‘Epistemic Value.’ Synthese, 64: 37–64.Google Scholar
Meacham, C.J.G. 2014. ‘Impermissive Bayesianism.’ Erkenntnis, 79: 1185–217.Google Scholar
Portmore, D. 2009. ‘Consequentializing.’ Philosophy Compass, 4: 329–47.Google Scholar
Schechter, J. 2013. ‘Rational Self-Doubt and the Failure of Closure.’ Philosophical Studies, 163: 429–52.Google Scholar
Schoenfield, M. 2014. ‘Permission to Believe: Why Permissivism is True and What it Tells Us about Irrelevant Influences on Belief.’ Noûs, 48: 193–218.Google Scholar
Schoenfield, M. 2015. ‘A Dilemma for Calibrationism.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 91: 425–55.Google Scholar
Sliwa, P. and Horowitz, S. 2015. ‘Respecting All the Evidence.’ Philosophical Studies, 172: 2835–58.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. 2005. Knowledge and Practical Interests. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Titelbaum, M. 2010. ‘Not Enough There There.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 24: 477–528.Google Scholar
Titelbaum, M. 2015. ‘Rationality's Fixed Point (Or: In Defense of Right Reason).’ Oxford Studies in Epistemology, vol. 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weatherson, B. 2013. Disagreements, Philosophical and Otherwise. In Christensen, D. and Lackey, J. (eds), The Epistemology of Disagreement: New Essays, pp. 54–73. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weatherson, B. ms. ‘Do Judgments Screen Evidence?’Google Scholar
White, R. 2005. ‘Epistemic Permissiveness.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 19: 445–59.Google Scholar
White, R. 2009. ‘On Treating Oneself and Others as Thermometers.’ Episteme, 6: 233–50.Google Scholar
White, R. 2010. ‘Evidential Symmetry and Mushy Credence.’ Oxford Studies in Epistemology, vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2000. Knowledge and its Limits. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Worsnip, A. 2015. ‘The Conflict of Evidence and Coherence.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. doi: 10.1111/phpr.12246.Google Scholar