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Single Idea 3573

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 3. Reliabilism / a. Reliable knowledge ]

Full Idea

The radical externalists' key notion is 'reliability', which is a normative condition governing adequate performance, involving reference to a range of conditions which we decide rather than discover.

Gist of Idea

Externalist reliability refers to a range of conventional conditions

Source

Michael Williams (Problems of Knowledge [2001], Ch. 2)

Book Ref

Williams,Michael: 'Problems of Knowledge' [OUP 2001], p.33


A Reaction

If we can decide whether a source is reliable, we can also decide whether a reliable source has performed well on this occasion, and that will always take precedence.


The 14 ideas with the same theme [reliability that is needed for secure knowledge]:

Say how many teeth the other has, then count them. If you are right, we will trust your other claims [Plato]
Madmen are reliable reporters of what appears to them [Sext.Empiricus]
A belief is knowledge if it is true, certain and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
Belief is knowledge if it is true, certain, and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
Maybe a reliable justification must come from a process working with its 'proper function' [Plantinga, by Pollock/Cruz]
Reliability involves truth, and truth is external [Goldman]
Justification depends on the reliability of its cause, where reliable processes tend to produce truth [Goldman]
If someone rejects good criticism through arrogance, that is irrelevant to whether they have knowledge [Feldman/Conee]
Reliabilists disagree over whether some further requirement is needed to produce knowledge [Bonjour]
Externalist reliability refers to a range of conventional conditions [Williams,M]
A reliability theory of knowledge seems to involve truth as correspondence [Audi,R]
Reliability only makes a rule reasonable if we place a value on the truth produced by reliable processes [Field,H]
Process reliabilism has been called 'virtue epistemology', resting on perception, memory, reason [Kusch]
Reliabilist knowledge is evidence based belief, with high conditional probability [Comesaņa]