Radical epistemology, structural explanations, and epistemic weaponry

Bibliographic Data

ID21370802
AuthorsRichard Pettigrew (0000-0003-0822-4300, University of Bristol, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume179
Issue1
Pages289-304
Publication date2022-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8116 • E-ISSN: 1573-0883
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11098-021-01660-x
OpenAlexW3165051485
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited17

When is a belief justified? There are three families of arguments we typically use to support different accounts of justification: (1) arguments from our intuitive responses to vignettes that involve the concept; (2) arguments from the theoretical role we would like the concept to play in epistemology; and (3) arguments from the practical, moral, and political uses to which we wish to put the concept. I focus particularly on the third sort (3), and specifically on arguments of this sort offered by Clayton Littlejohn in Justification and the Truth-Connection (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012) and Amia Srinivasan in ‘Radical Externalism’ (Philos Rev 129(3): 395–431, 2018) in favour of externalism. I counter Srinivasan’s argument in two ways: (a) first, I show that the internalist’s concept of justification might figure just as easily in the sorts of structural explanation Srinivasan thinks our political goals require us to give; and (b) I argue that the internalist’s concept is needed for a particular political task, namely, to help us build more effective defences against what I call epistemic weapons. I conclude that we should adopt an Alstonian pluralism about the concept of justification

Argument (complex analysis) · Epistemology · Externalism · Internalism and externalism · Metaphysics · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of science · Pluralism (philosophy) · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Free Will and Agency · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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