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Full Idea
Visual experience is recognized as both the cause and the justification of our visual beliefs. But these are not wholly independent. Presumably the justification that something is red derives partly from the fact that it originates in visual experience.
Gist of Idea
Vision causes and justifies beliefs; but to some extent the cause is the justification
Source
Ernest Sosa (The Raft and the Pyramid [1980], §10)
Book Ref
'Epistemology - An Anthology', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Kim,J. [Blackwell 2000], p.146
A Reaction
Yes, but the fact that certain visual experiences originate in dreams is taken as grounds for denying their truth, not affirming it. So why do we distinguish them? I am thinking that only in the 'space of reasons' can a cause become a justification.
| 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] |