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Full Idea
If I have a headache, I could have a set of beliefs that I do not have a headache, that I am not in pain, that no one is in pain, and so on. The resulting system of beliefs would cohere as fully as does my actual system of beliefs.
Gist of Idea
The negation of all my beliefs about my current headache would be fully coherent
Source
Ernest Sosa (The Raft and the Pyramid [1980], §9)
Book Ref
'Epistemology - An Anthology', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Kim,J. [Blackwell 2000], p.145
A Reaction
I think this is a misunderstanding of coherentism. Beliefs are not to be formulated through a process of coherence, but are evaluated that way. A belief that I have headache just arrives; I then see that its denial is incoherent, so I accept it.
| 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] |