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    There must be an utterly unconditioned first principle to... — Carmelics
    Home/Skepticism
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    There must be an utterly unconditioned first principle to ground certain human knowledge and avoid an infinite regress of justification.

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.We can only properly be said to know assertions that exhibit the character of certainty.
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    • 2.Justification of certain assertions requires grounding in some prior principle.
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    • 3.An infinite regress in justification must be avoided.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Coherentist justification (Neurath, Quine) shows beliefs can be mutually supporting without any single foundational anchor.
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    • 2.A web of interconnected beliefs can achieve epistemic stability without terminating in an unconditioned first principle.
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    • 3.The demand for a single terminus conflates logical structure with psychological certainty, committing a genetic fallacy.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Wittgenstein's 'On Certainty' demonstrates that bedrock certainties function as practical hinges, not as derived or derivable axioms.
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    • 2.Hinge propositions gain their epistemic status from forms of life and practice, not from being unconditioned in any metaphysical sense.
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    Topics

    SkepticismTruth & Knowledge

    Key Terms

    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.

    Related

    A web of interconnected beliefs can achieve epistemic stability without terminat...An infinite regress in justification must be avoided.Coherentist justification (Neurath, Quine) shows beliefs can be mutually support...Hinge propositions gain their epistemic status from forms of life and practice, ...
    +5 moreShow less
    Justification of certain assertions requires grounding in some prior principle.Only a principle that cannot itself be derived from any other principle can term...The demand for a single terminus conflates logical structure with psychological ...We can only properly be said to know assertions that exhibit the character of ce...Wittgenstein's 'On Certainty' demonstrates that bedrock certainties function as ...

    Similar

    A first principle must be utterly unconditioned — its certainty must n...88%Foundationalism that grounds all knowledge on a single first principle...87%The first unconditioned principle of all knowledge requires establishi...82%A first principle of philosophy must not presuppose anything prior to ...81%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: idealism
    View source passageHide passage
    Following the early Doctrine of Science, we must, according to Fichte, accept three fundamental principles (Grundsätze) of human knowledge without which we could not even make sense of the idea that we can know that there is something real at all. The first states that self-consciousness or the I is a spontaneous (unconditioned) act that in taking place creates or posits the I as having existence or being (ein Akt, der im Vollzug sein eigenes Sein schafft). The I understood as this self-positing
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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