Fading Foundations

Probability and the Regress Problem

David Atkinson, Jeanne Peijnenburg (Autoren)

Buch | Softcover

XI, 238 Seiten

2018 | 1. Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2017
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-86368-9 (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.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	12.5.2018
Reihe/Serie	Synthese Library
Zusatzinfo	XI, 238 p.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	3869 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
Schlagworte	epistemic justification • infinite regress • open access • Regresses in Epistemology • Regresses in Ethics • Regresses in Metaphysics • Regresses in Philosophy of Mind
ISBN-10	3-319-86368-1 / 3319863681
ISBN-13	978-3-319-86368-9 / 9783319863689
Zustand	Neuware