Single Idea 12800

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / A. Justification Problems / 3. Internal or External / c. Disjunctivism]

Full Idea

Externalists are principally interested in understanding what knowledge is, ..while internalists, by contrast, are principally interested in explicating a sense of justification ..from one's own perspective.

Gist of Idea

Externalists want to understand knowledge, Internalists want to understand justification

Source

Richard Foley (Justified Belief as Responsible Belief [2005], p.314)

Book Reference

'Contemporary Debates in Epistemology', ed/tr. Steup,M/Sosa,E [Blackwell 2005], p.314


A Reaction

I find this very helpful, since I have a strong bias towards internalism (with a social dimension), and I see now that it is because I am more interested in what a (good) justification is than what some entity in reality called 'knowledge' consists of.