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Single Idea 2747

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 2. Causal Justification ]

Full Idea

Causal accounts of justification do not allow for the possibility that a false belief may still be justified.

Gist of Idea

Causal theories don't allow for errors in justification

Source

Jonathan Dancy (Intro to Contemporary Epistemology [1985], 2.4)

Book Ref

Dancy,Jonathan: 'Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology' [Blackwell 1985], p.35

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A Reaction

Good. If you switch to what you only think is the cause of your belief, you have gone internalist and ruined the party. You can't deny that a falsehood can be justified, or justification is vacuous.

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The 14 ideas with the same theme [justification needs a causal link from facts to beliefs]:

11052

Psychological logic can't distinguish justification from causes of a belief [Frege]

3790	Causes of beliefs are irrelevant to their contents [Wittgenstein]

3832	Causes (usually events) are not the same as reasons (which are never events) [Searle]

8798	Vision causes and justifies beliefs; but to some extent the cause is the justification [Sosa]

16279

General causal theories of knowledge are refuted by mathematics [Lewis]

3795	Causal theories require the "right" sort of link (usually unspecified) [Dennett]

2746	How can a causal theory of justification show that all men die? [Dancy,J]

2747	Causal theories don't allow for errors in justification [Dancy,J]

3569	In the causal theory of knowledge the facts must cause the belief [Williams,M]

3567	How could there be causal relations to mathematical facts? [Williams,M]

3586	Only a belief can justify a belief [Williams,M]

3898	My belief that it will rain tomorrow can't be caused by its raining tomorrow [Scruton]

6358	One belief may cause another, without being the basis for the second belief [Pollock/Cruz]

10350

Cultures decide causal routes, and they can be critically assessed [Kusch]