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    Coherence of one's beliefs is not sufficient for epistemi... — Carmelics
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    Home/Skepticism
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    Coherence of one's beliefs is not sufficient for epistemic justification

    SkepticismTruth & Knowledge
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.A perfectly coherent system of beliefs can be entirely disconnected from the external world, as BonJour's 'isolation objection' demonstrates.
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    • 2.Coherent fiction—like Tolkien's Middle-earth—satisfies all internal consistency requirements yet produces no epistemic justification for beliefs about reality.
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    • 3.Justification requires some constraint from mind-independent facts, which coherence among mental states alone structurally cannot provide.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Multiple mutually exclusive belief systems can each achieve maximal internal coherence, as Neurath's own coherentism acknowledges with the 'alternative coherent systems' problem.
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    • 2.If coherence alone were sufficient for justification, contradictory worldviews held by different agents would be simultaneously and equally justified.
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    • 3.A justification condition that licenses contradictory beliefs about the same subject matter fails the basic epistemic norm that justified belief must track truth.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.For coherence to justify beliefs, one would already need to be justified in believing that one's beliefs are coherent
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    • 2.For coherence to justify beliefs, one would already need to be justified in believing that coherence makes one's beliefs likely to be true
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    • 3.This requirement generates a regress or circularity that coherence alone cannot resolve
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    Related

    A justification condition that licenses contradictory beliefs about the same sub...A perfectly coherent system of beliefs can be entirely disconnected from the ext...Coherent fiction—like Tolkien's Middle-earth—satisfies all internal consistency ...For coherence to justify beliefs, one would already need to be justified in beli...
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    For coherence to justify beliefs, one would already need to be justified in beli...If coherence alone were sufficient for justification, contradictory worldviews h...Justification requires some constraint from mind-independent facts, which cohere...Multiple mutually exclusive belief systems can each achieve maximal internal coh...This requirement generates a regress or circularity that coherence alone cannot ...

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: justep-foundational
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    BonJour presented the objection on the way to developing a coherence theory of empirical justification. But it ultimately became obvious that the objection to foundationalism was too strong. Given the structure of the argument it should become evident that the coherence theory (and any other theory) would be equally vulnerable to the argument. Just replace “X” with some complicated description of beliefs cohering with each other. Coherence of one’s beliefs would never be sufficient for justifica
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit