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Single Idea 6948

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 1. External Justification ]

Full Idea

To satisfy our doubts it is necessary that a method should be found by which our beliefs may be determined by nothing human, but by some external permanency - by something upon which our thinking has no effect.

Gist of Idea

Doubts should be satisfied by some external permanency upon which thinking has no effect

Source

Charles Sanders Peirce (The Fixation of Belief [1877], p.18)

Book Ref

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.18


A Reaction

This may be the single most important idea in pragmatism and in the philosophy of science. See Fodor on experiments (Idea 2455). Put the question to nature. The essential aim is to be passive in our beliefs - just let reality form them.

Related Idea

Idea 2455 Interrogation and experiment submit us to having beliefs caused [Fodor]


The 20 ideas with the same theme [general issues about external justification]:

For Locke knowledge relates to objects, not to propositions [Locke, by Rorty]
Doubts should be satisfied by some external permanency upon which thinking has no effect [Peirce]
Externalism says knowledge involves a natural relation between the belief state and what makes it true [Armstrong]
In the past people had a reason not to smoke, but didn't realise it [Searle]
Norm Externalism says norms must be internal, but their selection is partly external [Pollock]
Externalists tend to take a third-person point of view of epistemology [Pollock]
Externalist theories of justification don't require believers to have reasons for their beliefs [Bonjour]
Extreme externalism says no more justification is required than the truth of the belief [Bonjour]
Externalism could even make belief unnecessary (e.g. in animals) [Dancy,J]
Subjects may be unaware of their epistemic 'entitlements', unlike their 'justifications' [Burge]
Externalism does not require knowing that you know [Williams,M]
Externalism ignores the social aspect of knowledge [Williams,M]
Consistent accurate prediction looks like knowledge without justified belief [Audi,R]
Is knowledge just a state of mind, or does it also involve the existence of external things? [Crane]
Externalism comes as 'probabilism' (probability of truth) and 'reliabilism' (probability of good cognitive process) [Pollock/Cruz]
Justification is normative, so it can't be reduced to cognitive psychology [Bernecker/Dretske]
Externalist accounts of knowledge do not require the traditional sort of justification [Kornblith]
Surely ALL truths are externally justified, by the facts? [Cross,A]
Knowledge is true belief which can be explained just by citing the proposition believed [Jenkins]
Externalism may imply that identical mental states might go with different justifications [Vahid]