Testimony, testimonial belief, and safety
Philosophical Studies 164 (1):205-217 (2013)
Abstract
Can one gain testimonial knowledge from unsafe testimony? It might seem not, on the grounds that if a piece of testimony is unsafe, then any belief based on it in such a way as to make the belief genuinely testimonial is bound itself to be unsafe: the lack of safety must transmit from the testimony to the testimonial belief. If in addition we accept that knowledge requires safety, the result seems to be that one cannot gain testimonial knowledge from unsafe testimony. In a pair of recent papers, however, Sanford Goldberg has challenged this apparently plausible line of thought. Goldberg presents two examples intended to show that a testimonial belief can be safe, even if the testimony on which it is based is unsafe: the lack of safety need not transmit from the testimony to the testimonial belief. In this paper, I question whether Goldberg’s examples really do show that one can gain safe testimonial belief from unsafe testimony. The problem, I explain, is that both examples appear (for different reasons) to be open to objection. Nevertheless, I argue that although Goldberg’s examples do not establish his conclusion, the conclusion itself is true: one can gain safe testimonial belief from unsafe testimony. I base my argument on an example which differs in structure from Goldberg’s examples, and I argue that due to this difference, my example avoids the problems which Goldberg’s examples faceAuthor's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s11098-011-9849-4
My notes
Similar books and articles
The Informational Richness of Testimonial Contexts.Tim Kenyon - 2013 - Philosophical Quarterly 63 (250):58-80.
The Social Diffusion of Warrant and Rationality.Sanford C. Goldberg - 2006 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 44 (S1):118-138.
I can trust you now … but not later: An explanation of testimonial knowledge in children.Joshue Orozco - 2010 - Acta Analytica 25 (2):195-214.
Testimony, Belief Transfer, and Causal Irrelevance: Reflections From India's Nyaya School.Matthew R. Dasti - 2008 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 25 (4):281-299.
Critical Study of Goldberg's Relying on Others. [REVIEW]Mikkel Gerken - 2012 - Episteme 9 (1):81-88.
A defense of reductionism about testimonial justification of beliefs.Tomoji Shogenji - 2006 - Noûs 40 (2):331–346.
Analytics
Added to PP
2012-01-03
Downloads
150 (#85,371)
6 months
1 (#447,993)
2012-01-03
Downloads
150 (#85,371)
6 months
1 (#447,993)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Epistemological problems of testimony.Jonathan E. Adler - 2006 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Transmission View of Testimony and the Problem of Conflicting Justification.Nick Leonard - 2018 - American Philosophical Quarterly 55 (1):27-36.