The Case for Infallibilism

In Carlo Penco, Massimiliano Vignolo, Valeria Ottonelli & Cristina Amoretti (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th Latin Meeting in Analytic Philosophy. Genoa: University of Genoa. pp. 59-84 (2007)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Infallibilism is the claim that knowledge requires that one satisfies some infallibility condition. I spell out three distinct such conditions: epistemic, evidential and modal infallibility. Epistemic infallibility turns out to be simply a consequence of epistemic closure, and is not infallibilist in any relevant sense. Evidential infallibilism i s unwarranted but it is not an satisfactory characterization of the infallibilist intuition. Modal infallibility, by contrast, captures the core infallibilist intuition, and I argue that it is required to solve the Gettier problem and account for lottery cases. Finally, I discuss whether modal infallibilism has sceptical consequences and argue that it is an open question whose answer depends on one’s account of alethic possibility.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,757

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Empirical Case against Infallibilism.T. Parent - 2016 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 7 (1):223-242.
A Safe Road to Infallibilism?Wayne A. Davis - 2023 - The Monist 106 (4):381-393.
Two kinds of a priori infallibility.Glen Hoffmann - 2011 - Synthese 181 (2):241-253.
Brown on infallibilism’s problem with testimony.Sanford C. Goldberg - 2022 - Philosophical Studies 179 (8):2655-2663.
Pragmatic infallibilism.Brian Kim - 2023 - Asian Journal of Philosophy 2 (2):1-22.
How to Be a Pragmatic Infallibilist.Brian Kim - 2023 - Southwest Philosophy Review 39 (1):145-153.
Against Fallibilism.Dylan Dodd - 2011 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 89 (4):665 - 685.
How Infallibilists Can Have It All.Nevin Climenhaga - 2023 - The Monist 106 (4):363-380.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-11-29

Downloads
249 (#107,020)

6 months
20 (#149,462)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Julien Dutant
King's College London

Citations of this work

Pragmatic infallibilism.Brian Kim - 2023 - Asian Journal of Philosophy 2 (2):1-22.
Infallibilism and Easy Counter-Examples.Alex Davies - 2018 - Grazer Philosophische Studien 95 (4):475-499.

View all 9 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Knowledge and lotteries.John Hawthorne - 2004 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The structure of empirical knowledge.Laurence BonJour - 1985 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Knowledge and belief.Jaakko Hintikka - 1962 - Ithaca, N.Y.,: Cornell University Press.
Epistemic Luck.Duncan Pritchard - 2005 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.

View all 65 references / Add more references