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Single Idea 4255

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 4. Foundationalism / a. Foundationalism ]

Full Idea

Externalist theories of knowledge are one species of foundationalism.

Clarification

'Foundational' theories base knowledge on something totally reliable

Gist of Idea

Externalist theories of knowledge are one species of foundationalism

Source

Laurence Bonjour (Externalist Theories of Empirical Knowledge [1980], Intro)

Book Ref

'Epistemology: Internalism and Externalism', ed/tr. Kornblith,Hilary [Blackwell 2001], p.10

A Reaction

I don't see why there shouldn't be a phenomenalist, anti-realist version of externalism, which just has 'starting points' instead of a serious commitment to foundations.

The 41 ideas from Laurence Bonjour

3695 Philosophy is a priori if it is anything [Bonjour]
3696 A priori justification requires understanding but no experience [Bonjour]
3697 The concept of possibility is prior to that of necessity [Bonjour]
3698 Indeterminacy of translation is actually indeterminacy of meaning and belief [Bonjour]
3699 The induction problem blocks any attempted proof of physical statements [Bonjour]
3701 Externalist theories of justification don't require believers to have reasons for their beliefs [Bonjour]
3702 Externalism means we have no reason to believe, which is strong scepticism [Bonjour]
3700 Coherence can't be validated by appeal to coherence [Bonjour]
3704 Moderate rationalists believe in fallible a priori justification [Bonjour]
3703 You can't explain away a priori justification as analyticity, and you can't totally give it up [Bonjour]
3651 Perceiving necessary connections is the essence of reasoning [Bonjour]
3706 A priori justification can vary in degree [Bonjour]
3707 Our rules of thought can only be judged by pure rational insight [Bonjour]
3708 All thought represents either properties or indexicals [Bonjour]
3709 Induction must go beyond the evidence, in order to explain why the evidence occurred [Bonjour]
4255 Externalist theories of knowledge are one species of foundationalism [Bonjour]
4261 The Lottery Paradox says each ticket is likely to lose, so there probably won't be a winner [Bonjour, by PG]
4257 The big problem for foundationalism is to explain how basic beliefs are possible [Bonjour]
4256 The main argument for foundationalism is that all other theories involve a regress leading to scepticism [Bonjour]
4258 Extreme externalism says no more justification is required than the truth of the belief [Bonjour]
4260 Even if there is no obvious irrationality, it may be irrational to base knowledge entirely on external criteria [Bonjour]
4259 External reliability is not enough, if the internal state of the believer is known to be irrational [Bonjour]
21506 A coherence theory of justification can combine with a correspondence theory of truth [Bonjour]
21508 Anomalies challenge the claim that the basic explanations are actually basic [Bonjour]
21509 There will always be a vast number of equally coherent but rival systems [Bonjour]
21511 A well written novel cannot possibly match a real belief system for coherence [Bonjour]
21510 The objection that a negated system is equally coherent assume that coherence is consistency [Bonjour]
21503 Empirical coherence must attribute reliability to spontaneous experience [Bonjour]
21505 A coherent system can be justified with initial beliefs lacking all credibility [Bonjour]
21504 The best explanation of coherent observations is they are caused by and correspond to reality [Bonjour]
8887 It is hard to give the concept of 'self-evident' a clear and defensible characterization [Bonjour]
8888 The concept of knowledge is so confused that it is best avoided [Bonjour]
8889 Reliabilists disagree over whether some further requirement is needed to produce knowledge [Bonjour]
8890 If the reliable facts producing a belief are unknown to me, my belief is not rational or responsible [Bonjour]
8891 My incoherent beliefs about art should not undermine my very coherent beliefs about physics [Bonjour]
8892 Coherence seems to justify empirical beliefs about externals when there is no external input [Bonjour]
8894 Coherentists must give a reason why coherent justification is likely to lead to the truth [Bonjour]
8893 For any given area, there seem to be a huge number of possible coherent systems of beliefs [Bonjour]
8895 If neither the first-level nor the second-level is itself conscious, there seems to be no consciousness present [Bonjour]
8896 Conscious states have built-in awareness of content, so we know if a conceptual description of it is correct [Bonjour]
8897 The adverbial account will still be needed when a mind apprehends its sense-data [Bonjour]