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    Reliabilist epistemology (Goldman 1979) holds that a beli... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The reliability of a testimonial source alone is not sufficient to make testimony a source of knowledge.

    Reliabilist epistemology (Goldman 1979) holds that a belief constitutes knowledge when produced by a reliable cognitive process, regardless of the agent's access to that reliability.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Knowledge requires truth-conduciveness; reliable processes produce true beliefs at high frequency, making them necessary for knowledge.
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    • 2.Internalism wrongly demands conscious access to justification, but we know things through perception and memory without introspective awareness.
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    • 3.Reliabilism explains why expert intuitions (doctors diagnosing disease) constitute knowledge despite inability to articulate their reasoning process.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.A belief from a reliable process can lack justification if the agent has defeating evidence they ignore—reliability alone seems insufficient.
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    • 2.Defining 'reliable cognitive process' requires circularity: we identify processes as reliable by checking if they produce knowledge, which assumes the theory.
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    • 3.Reliabilism cannot distinguish knowledge from lucky true belief when a reliable process produces truth by accident in that particular instance.
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    Key Terms

    Access(used in ethics and social philosophy to distinguish between what's theoretically available versus what's realistically possible)
    In philosophy, 'access' means having the theoretical ability or opportunity to do something, even if circumstances make it practically impossible to actually do it.
    Alvin Goldman(epistemology)
    An American philosopher known for developing 'reliabilism,' a theory arguing that knowledge comes from belief-forming processes that reliably produce true beliefs.
    Cognitive process(as used in epistemology)
    A mental activity your brain uses to gain information or form beliefs, like reasoning, memory, or perception.
    Reliable(as used in epistemology)
    Consistently trustworthy and likely to produce correct results most of the time.
    belief(Hume's account of causal inference, Treatise I.III.7–8)
    An idea that is almost as vivid and forceful as the impression of which it was once a copy
    epistemology(Contrasted with purely descriptive scientific inquiry)
    A normative enterprise that tells us how we ought to reason from evidence and how we ought to justify our beliefs, as distinct from merely describing how we do reason or justify beliefs
    knowledge(Distinguished from mere true belief, which may be the product of indoctrination and need not exercise deliberative capacities.)
    Justified true belief — true belief that has been arrived at through the exercise of deliberative capacities, including comparison of and deliberation among alternatives.
    reliabilism(epistemology)
    A theory holding that a belief is knowledge if it is true and if it was produced or is sustained by a reliable process that yields mostly true beliefs

    Connections

    2 topics

    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedSkepticism1 linked

    Related

    A belief from a reliable process can lack justification if the agent has defeati...Defining 'reliable cognitive process' requires circularity: we identify processe...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    Internalism wrongly demands conscious access to justification, but we know thing...
    Knowledge requires truth-conduciveness; reliable processes produce true beliefs ...
    +3 moreShow less
    Reliabilism cannot distinguish knowledge from lucky true belief when a reliable ...Reliabilism explains why expert intuitions (doctors diagnosing disease) constitu...The reliability of a testimonial source alone is not sufficient to make testimon...