Single Idea 8890

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 3. Reliabilism / b. Anti-reliabilism]

Full Idea

How can the fact that a belief is reliably produced make my acceptance of that belief rational and responsible when that fact itself is entirely unavailable to me?

Gist of Idea

If the reliable facts producing a belief are unknown to me, my belief is not rational or responsible

Source

Laurence Bonjour (A Version of Internalist Foundationalism [2003], 2.2)

Book Reference

Bonjour,L/Sosa,E: 'Epistemic Justification' [Blackwells 2003], p.27


A Reaction

This question must rival Pollock's proposal (Idea 8815) as the master argument against externalism. Bonjour is assuming that knowledge has to be 'rational and responsible', but clearly externalists take a more lax view of knowledge.

Related Idea

Idea 8815 Belief externalism is false, because external considerations cannot be internalized for actual use [Pollock]