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Full Idea
A single belief can trail at once regresses of both sorts: one terminating and one not.
Gist of Idea
A single belief can trail two regresses, one terminating and one not
Source
Ernest Sosa (The Raft and the Pyramid [1980], §6)
Book Ref
'Epistemology - An Anthology', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Kim,J. [Blackwell 2000], p.141
A Reaction
This makes foundationalism possible, while admitting the existence of regresses. It is a good point, and triumphalist anti-foundationalists can't just point out a regress and then smugly troop off to the pub.
| 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] |