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Full Idea
If a mental state provides no guarantee against error, then it cannot serve as a foundation for knowledge.
Gist of Idea
Mental states cannot be foundational if they are not immune to error
Source
Ernest Sosa (The Raft and the Pyramid [1980], §4)
Book Ref
'Epistemology - An Anthology', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Kim,J. [Blackwell 2000], p.136
A Reaction
That assumes that knowledge entails certainty, which I am sure it should not. On a fallibilist account, a foundation could be incredibly secure, despite a barely imaginable scenario in which it turned out to be false.
| 8798 | Vision causes and justifies beliefs; but to some extent the cause is the justification [Sosa] |
| 8799 | If mental states are not propositional, they are logically dumb, and cannot be foundations [Sosa] |
| 8794 | There are very few really obvious truths, and not much can be proved from them [Sosa] |
| 8795 | Mental states cannot be foundational if they are not immune to error [Sosa] |
| 8796 | A single belief can trail two regresses, one terminating and one not [Sosa] |
| 8797 | The negation of all my beliefs about my current headache would be fully coherent [Sosa] |