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Single Idea 19680

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 3. Evidentialism / a. Evidence ]

Full Idea

Some philosophers have been attracted to the view that, strictly speaking, what counts as evidence is not a set of physical objects or even experiences, but rather a set of believed propositions.

Gist of Idea

Maybe all evidence consists of beliefs, rather than of facts

Source

Timothy McGrew (Evidence [2011], 'Prop..')

Book Ref

'Routledge Companion to Epistemology', ed/tr. Bernecker,S/Pritchard,D [Routledge 2014], p.59

A Reaction

This may be right. However, as always, I think animals are a key test. Do animals respond to evidence? Even if they did, they might need to 'make sense' of what they experienced, and even formulate a non-linguistic proposition.

Related Idea

Idea 19681 If all evidence is propositional, what is the evidence for the proposition? Do we face a regress? [McGrew]

The 17 ideas with the same theme [experiences and facts pointing towards knowledge]:

23641 People dislike believing without evidence, and try to avoid it [Reid]
19224 Scientists will give up any conclusion, if experience opposes it [Peirce]
17073 I simply reject evidence, if it is totally contrary to my web of belief [Smart]
3097 We don't distinguish between accepting, and accepting as evidence [Harman]
7450 In the medieval view, only deduction counted as true evidence [Hacking]
7451 Formerly evidence came from people; the new idea was that things provided evidence [Hacking]
16825 How do we distinguish negative from irrelevant evidence, if both match the hypothesis? [Lipton]
19687 Absence of evidence proves nothing, and weird claims need special evidence [McGrew]
19684 Does spotting a new possibility count as evidence? [McGrew]
19688 Every event is highly unlikely (in detail), but may be perfectly plausible [McGrew]
19686 Criminal law needs two separate witnesses, but historians will accept one witness [McGrew]
19680 Maybe all evidence consists of beliefs, rather than of facts [McGrew]
19681 If all evidence is propositional, what is the evidence for the proposition? Do we face a regress? [McGrew]
19689 Several unreliable witnesses can give good support, if they all say the same thing [McGrew]
17771 How we evaluate evidence depends on our background beliefs [Bayne]
17770 Clifford's dictum seems to block our beliefs in morality, politics and philosophy [Bayne]
18820 In English 'evidence' is a mass term, qualified by 'little' and 'more' [Rumfitt]