Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T07:32:04.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Limits of Internalism: A Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2010

Karyn L. Freedman*
Affiliation:
University of Guelph

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Looking at specific populations of knowers reveals that the presumption of sameness within knowledge communities can lead to a number of epistemological oversights. A good example of this is found in the case of survivors of sexual violence. In this paper I argue that this case study offers a new perspective on the debate between the epistemic internalist and externalist by providing us with a fresh insight into the complicated psychological dimensions of belief formation and the implications that this has for an epistemology that demands reasons that are first-person accessible.

RÉSUMÉ: L’observation de populations spécifiques d’agents épistémiques révèle que la présomption d’identité au sein de communautés épistémiques peut mener à certaines omissions cognitives. Les victimes de violence sexuelle en sont un bon exemple. Cette étude de cas offre selon nous une nouvelle perspective sur le débat entre les internalistes et les externalistes en épistémologie en proposant une nouvelle perspective sur les dimensions psychologiques complexes dans la formation des croyances et sur leur implication dans une épistémologie qui nécessite que les raisons soient accessibles à la première personne.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, Beverly 1996 Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Alston, William P. 1988 “The Deontological Conception of Epistemic Justification.” In vol. 2 of Philosophical Perspectives. Ed. Tomberlin, James. American Psychiatric Association (APA): 257–299.Google Scholar
Alston, William P. 1994 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4thed.Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Alston, William P. 1980 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 3rded.Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Bonjour, Laurence 2000 “Foundationalism and the External World.” In vol. 13 of Philosophical Perspectives. Ed. Tomberlin, James. London: Blackwell: pp. 229–250.Google Scholar
Bonjour, Laurence 1980Externalist Theories of Empirical Knowledge.” Midwest Studies in Philosophy. 5: 53–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonjour, Laurence 1978Can Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?American Philosophical Quarterly 15: 1–14.Google Scholar
Brandom, Robert 1998Insights and Blindspots of Reliabilism.” The Monist 81, no. 3: 371–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breuer, Joseph and Freud, Sigmund 1895 Studies in Hysteria. Authorized translation by Brill, A. A.. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Brison, Susan J. 2001 Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Burge, Tyler 1993Content Preservation.” The Philosophical Review 102, no. 4: 457–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick 1988The Indispensability of Internal Justification,” Synthese 74: 285–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Richard 2002 “Epistemological Duties.” The Oxford Handbook of Epistemology. Ed. Moser, Paul. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 361–84.Google Scholar
Feldman, Richard and Conee, Earl 2004 Evidentialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Richard and Conee, Earl 2001 “Internalism Defended.” In Kornblith, H., ed., Epistemology: Internalism and Externalism. Oxford: Blackwell Readings in Philosophy.Google Scholar
Francisco, Patricia Weaver 1999 Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Freedman, Karyn 2006The Epistemological Significance of Psychic Trauma.” Hypatia 21, no. 2: 104–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gettier, Edmund L. 1963Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?Analysis 23: 121–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin 1979 “What is Justified Belief?” In Pappas, G. S., ed., Justification and Knowledge. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing, 1–23.Google Scholar
Goldman, Alvin 1976Discrimination and Perceptual Knowledge.” The Journal of Philosophy 73: 771–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacking, Ian 1995 Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) 2007 Without Consent: A Report on the Joint Review of the Investigation and Prosecution of Rape Offences. London: Ashley House.Google Scholar
Herman, Judith 1992 Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
James, William 1896 The Principles of Psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Janet, Pierre 1889 Psychological Automatism. Thesis for doctor of philosophy. Paris: Félix Alcan.Google Scholar
Kornblith, Hilary, ed. 2001 Epistemology: Internalism and Externalism. Oxford: Blackwell Readings in Philosophy.Google Scholar
LaBar, Kevin S. and Cabeza, Roberto 2006Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotional Memory.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7: 54–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leys, Ruth 2000 Trauma: A Genealogy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsakis, Aphrodite 1998 Trust after Trauma. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.Google Scholar
McNally, Richard 2003Progress and Controversy in the Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” Annual Review Psychology 54: 229–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monture-Angus, Patricia 1995 Thunder in My Soul: A Mohawk Woman Speaks. Black Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing.Google Scholar
Pryor, James 2001Highlights of Recent Epistemology.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52: 92–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ronnie, Janoff-Bulman 1992 Shattered Assumptions: Towards a New Psychology of Trauma. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Rothschild, Babette 2000 The Body Remembers. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Sebold, Alice 1999 Lucky. New York: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Francine, and Forrest, Margot Silk 1997 EMDR: The Breakthrough Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress and Trauma. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada 1993 Violence against Women Survey (VAWS).Google Scholar
Stroud, Barry 1989 “Understanding Human Knowledge in General.” In Clay, M. and Lehrer, K., eds., Knowledge and Skepticism. Boulder: Westview Press: 31–50.Google Scholar
Tulving, Endel 1972 “Episodic and Semantic Memory.” In Tulving, E. and Donaldson, W., eds., Organization of Memory. New York: Academic Press, 381–403.Google Scholar
Tulving, Endel 1983 Elements of Episodic Memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
van der Hart, Onno, and Friedman, Barbara 1989A Reader’s Guide To Pierre Janet: A Neglected Intellectual Heritage.” Dissociation 2, no. 1: 3–16.Google Scholar
van der Kolk, Bessel A. 1996 “Trauma and Memory.” In van der Kolk, B. A., McFarlane, A.C., and Weisaeth, L., eds., Traumatic Stress. New York: The Guilford Press, 279–302.Google Scholar
Venable Raine, Nancy 1998 After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back. New York: Crown Publishers.Google Scholar
Violence Against Women Survey 2000 Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women. Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes. National Institute of Justice: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO) 2002 World Report on Violence and Health. Krug, Etienne G., Dahlberg, Linda L., Mercy, James A., Zwi, Anthony B. and Lozano, Rafael, eds. Geneva: World Health Organization.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, Allan 1995 The Harmony of Illusions: Inventing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar