Fading Foundations

Probability and the Regress Problem

David Atkinson, Jeanne Peijnenburg (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

XI, 238 Seiten

2017 | 1st ed. 2017
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-58294-8 (ISBN)

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This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.This book addresses the age-old problem of infinite regresses in epistemology. How can we ever come to know something if knowing requires having good reasons, and reasons can only be good if they are backed by good reasons in turn? The problem has puzzled philosophers ever since antiquity, giving rise to what is often called Agrippa's Trilemma. The current volume approaches the old problem in a provocative and thoroughly contemporary way. Taking seriously the idea that good reasons are typically probabilistic in character, it develops and defends a new solution that challenges venerable philosophical intuitions and explains why they were mistakenly held. Key to the new solution is the phenomenon of fading foundations, according to which distant reasons are less important than those that are nearby. The phenomenon takes the sting out of Agrippa's Trilemma; moreover, since the theory that describes it is general and abstract,it is readily applicable outside epistemology, notably to debates on infinite regresses in metaphysics. The book is a potential game-changer and a must for any advanced student or researcher in the field.

1. The Regress Problem.- 2. Epistemic Justification.- 3. The Probabilistic Regress.- 4. Fading Foundations and the Emergence of Justification.- 5 Finite Minds.- 6. Conceptual Objections.- 7. Higher-Order Probabilities.- 8. Loops and Networks.

Erscheinungsdatum	18.07.2017
Reihe/Serie	Synthese Library
Zusatzinfo	XI, 238 p.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	543 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
Schlagworte	epistemic justification • Epistemology • History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics • History of Science • infinite regress • Management Decision Making • Mathematical Foundations • Mathematical Logic • Mathematical Logic and Foundations • open access • Operational Research • Operation Research/Decision Theory • Philosophy • Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge • Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge • probability & statistics • Probability & statistics • Regresses in Epistemology • Regresses in Ethics • Regresses in Metaphysics • Regresses in Philosophy of Mind • Religion and Philosophy • Statistical Theory and Methods
ISBN-10	3-319-58294-1 / 3319582941
ISBN-13	978-3-319-58294-8 / 9783319582948
Zustand	Neuware