Introspective self-knowledge and reasoning: An externalist guide
Erkenntnis 71 (1):89 - 105 (2009)
| Abstract | According to the received view, externalist grounds or reasons need not be introspectively accessible. Roughly speaking, from an externalist point of view, a belief will be epistemically justified, iff it is based upon facts that make its truth objectively highly likely. This condition can be satisfied, even if the epistemic agent does not have actual or potential awareness of the justifying facts. No inner perspective on the belief-forming mechanism and its truth-ratio is needed for a belief to be justified. In my view, this is not the whole story. While I agree that introspective access to our reasons is a defining feature of justification for the access internalist, not the externalist, I will argue that even for the latter, some kind of introspective access is an epistemic desideratum. Yet, even given that I am right, the desirable might not be achievable for us. Recent psychological research suggests that we do not dispose of reliable introspection into the sources of our own beliefs. This seems to undermine the claim that we can introspectively know about the reasons upon which our beliefs are based. In this paper I will therefore additionally show why these results do not threaten the kind of introspective access desirable from an externalist point of view. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesThomas Natsoulas (1970). Concerning Introspective "Knowledge". Psychological Bulletin 73 (2):89-111.
Marc Alspector-kelly (2006). Knowledge Externalism. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 87 (3):289–300.
John Dilworth (2006). Perception, Introspection, and Functional Consonance. Theoria 72 (4):299-318.
Richard Swinburne (2001). Epistemic Justification. Oxford University Press.
Keith Frankish (2009). How We Know Our Conscious Minds: Introspective Access to Conscious Thoughts. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32 (2):145-146.
Renata Ziemińska (2006). Two Notions of the Internal and Goldman's Epistemic Externalism. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 91 (1):395-400.
William S. Larkin (2000). Content Skepticism. Southwest Philosophy Review 18 (1):33-43.
Elke Brendel (1999). Coherence Theory of Knowledge: A Gradational Account. Erkenntnis 50 (2-3):293-307.
Sarah Sawyer (1999). Am Externalist Account of Introspectve Knowledge. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 4 (4):358-78.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-05-02Total downloads45 ( #24,592 of 549,754 )Recent downloads (6 months)3 ( #25,807 of 549,754 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
