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Single Idea 8829

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 3. Reliabilism / a. Reliable knowledge ]

Full Idea

The justificational status of a belief is a function of the reliability of the processes that cause it, where (provisionally) reliability consists in the tendency of a process to produce beliefs that are true rather than false.

Gist of Idea

Justification depends on the reliability of its cause, where reliable processes tend to produce truth

Source

Alvin I. Goldman (What is Justified Belief? [1976], II)

Book Ref

'Epistemology - An Anthology', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Kim,J. [Blackwell 2000], p.345


A Reaction

Goldman's original first statement of reliabilism, now the favourite version of externalism. The obvious immediate problem is when a normally very reliable process goes wrong. Wise people still get it wrong, or right for the wrong reasons.


The 14 ideas with the same theme [reliability that is needed for secure knowledge]:

Say how many teeth the other has, then count them. If you are right, we will trust your other claims [Plato]
Madmen are reliable reporters of what appears to them [Sext.Empiricus]
A belief is knowledge if it is true, certain and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
Belief is knowledge if it is true, certain, and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
Maybe a reliable justification must come from a process working with its 'proper function' [Plantinga, by Pollock/Cruz]
Reliability involves truth, and truth is external [Goldman]
Justification depends on the reliability of its cause, where reliable processes tend to produce truth [Goldman]
If someone rejects good criticism through arrogance, that is irrelevant to whether they have knowledge [Feldman/Conee]
Reliabilists disagree over whether some further requirement is needed to produce knowledge [Bonjour]
Externalist reliability refers to a range of conventional conditions [Williams,M]
A reliability theory of knowledge seems to involve truth as correspondence [Audi,R]
Reliability only makes a rule reasonable if we place a value on the truth produced by reliable processes [Field,H]
Process reliabilism has been called 'virtue epistemology', resting on perception, memory, reason [Kusch]
Reliabilist knowledge is evidence based belief, with high conditional probability [Comesaņa]