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Full Idea
If we have a Deweyan conception of knowledge, as what we are justified in believing, we will see "justification" as a social phenomenon.
Gist of Idea
If knowledge is merely justified belief, justification is social
Source
Richard Rorty (Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature [1980], Intro)
Book Ref
Rorty,Richard: 'Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature' [Blackwell 1980], p.9
A Reaction
I find this observation highly illuminating (though I probably need to study Dewey to understand it). There just is no absolute about whether someone is justified. How justified do you want to be?
| 6598 | We need our beliefs to be determined by some external inhuman permanency [Peirce] |
| 20140 | We shouldn't object to a false judgement, if it enhances and preserves life [Nietzsche] |
| 20122 | We have no organ for knowledge or truth; we only 'know' what is useful to the human herd [Nietzsche] |
| 2548 | If knowledge is merely justified belief, justification is social [Rorty] |
| 3247 | Epistemology is centrally about what we should believe, not the definition of knowledge [Nagel] |
| 3595 | What works always takes precedence over theories [Williams,M] |
| 12802 | We aren't directly pragmatic about belief, but pragmatic about the deliberation which precedes it [Foley] |
| 12803 | Justification comes from acceptable procedures, given practical constraints [Foley] |