Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:46:51.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

INFINITISM AND SCEPTICISM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2017

Tim Oakley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Infinitism, in contrast to foundationalism and coherentism, claims that justification in any proposition requires the availability of an infinite chain of propositional reasons, each providing a justificatory reason for its successor in the chain. Both infinitists and some critics of the theory have at times noted the possibility that the theory may have sceptical consequences for doxastic justification. It is argued here that, for reasons that appear not to have been previously appreciated, sceptical results very definitely do follow from infinitism. On one construal of infinitism, this constitutes a reductio of the theory. On an alternative construal, infinitists may embrace the sceptical conclusion, but in doing so, will take on all the problems that scepticism faces.

Type
Articles
Information
Episteme , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 108 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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

REFERENCES

Aikin, S. 2005. ‘Who is Afraid of Epistemology's Regress Problem?’ Philosophical Studies, 126: 191–217.Google Scholar
Aikin, S. 2011. Epistemology and the Regress Problem. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Aikin, S. 2014. ‘Knowing Better, Cognitive Command, and Epistemic Infinitism.’ In Turri, J. and Klein, P. (eds), Ad Infinitum: New Essays on Epistemological Infinitism, pp. 18–36. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Audi, R. 1998. Epistemology. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fantl, J. 2003.‘Modest Infinitism.’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 33: 537–62.Google Scholar
Fumerton, R. 2006. Epistemology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Harker, J. E. 1984. ‘Can There be an Infinite Regress of Justified Beliefs?’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 61: 255–64.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 1999. ‘Human Knowledge and the Infinite Regress of Reasons.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 13: 297–325.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2005a. ‘Infinitism's Take on Justification, Knowledge, Certainty and Skepticism.’ Veritas, 50: 153–72.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2005b. ‘Infinitism is the Solution to the Infinite Regress Problem.’ In Steup, M. and Sosa, E. (eds), Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, pp. 131–40. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2007a. ‘Human Knowledge and the Infinite Progress of Reasoning.’ Philosophical Studies, 134: 1–17.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2007b. ‘How to be an Infinitist about Doxastic Justification.’ Philosophical Studies, 134: 25–9.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2008. ‘Contemporary Responses to Agrippa's Trilemma.’ In Greco, J. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Skepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2011. ‘Infinitism.’ In Bernecker, E. and Pritchard, D. (eds), The Routledge Companion to Epistemology, pp. 245–56. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2014a. ‘No Final End in Sight.’ In Neta, R. (ed.), Current Controversies in Epistemology, pp. 95–115. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Klein, P. 2014b. ‘Reasons, Reasoning and Knowledge: A Proposed Rapprochement between Infinitism and Foundationalism.’ In Turri, J. and Klein, P. (eds), Ad Infinitum: New Essays on Epistemological Infinitism, pp. 105–24. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Oakley, I. T. 1976. ‘An Argument for Scepticism Concerning Justified Beliefs.’ American Philosophical Quarterly, 15: 221–8.Google Scholar
Pollock, J. 1974. Knowledge and Justification. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Post, J. 1980. ‘Infinite Regresses of Justification and of Explanation.’ Philosophical Studies, 38: 12–52.Google Scholar
Turri, J. 2010. ‘On the Relationship Between Propositional and Doxastic Justification.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 80: 312–26.Google Scholar
Turri, J. and Klein, P. (eds) 2014a. Ad Infinitum: New Essays on Epistemological Infinitism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Turri, J. and Klein, P. 2014b. ‘Introduction.’ In Turri, J. and Klein, P. (eds), Ad Infinitum: New Essays on Epistemological Infinitism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar