Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:13:35.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

OUR RELIABILITY IS IN PRINCIPLE EXPLAINABLE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2016

Dan Baras Open the ORCID record for Dan Baras [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Non-skeptical robust realists about normativity, mathematics, or any other domain of non-causal truths are committed to a correlation between their beliefs and non-causal, mind-independent facts. Hartry Field and others have argued that if realists cannot explain this striking correlation, that is a strong reason to reject their theory. Some consider this argument, known as the Benacerraf–Field argument, as the strongest challenge to robust realism about mathematics (Field 1989, 2001), normativity (Enoch 2011), and even logic (Schechter 2010). In this article I offer two closely related accounts for the type of explanation needed in order to address Field's challenge. I then argue that both accounts imply that the striking correlation to which robust realists are committed is explainable, thereby discharging Field's challenge. Finally, I respond to some objections and end with a few unresolved worries.

Type
Articles
Information
Episteme , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 197 - 211
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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

Balaguer, M. 1995. ‘A Platonist Epistemology.’ Synthese, 103: 303–25.Google Scholar
Benacerraf, P. 1973. ‘Mathematical Truth.’ Journal of Philosophy, 70: 661–79.Google Scholar
Berker, S. 2014. ‘Does Evolutionary Psychology Show That Normativity Is Mind-Dependent?’ In D'Arms, J. and Jacobson, D. (eds), Moral Psychology and Human Agency: Philosophical Essays on the Science of Ethics, pp. 215–52. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bromberger, S. 1965. ‘An Approach to Explanation.’ Analytical Philosophy, 2: 72–105.Google Scholar
Burgess, J. P. and Rosen, G. 1999. A Subject With No Object. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, D. 2011. ‘Disagreement, Question-Begging and Epistemic Self-Criticism.’ Philosophers ’ Imprint 11 (6).Google Scholar
Clarke-Doane, J. Forthcoming a. ‘Debunking and Dispensability.’ In Sinclair, N. and Leibowitz, U. (eds), Explanation in Ethics and Mathematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke-Doane, J. Forthcoming b. ‘Debunking Arguments: Mathematics, Logic, and Modal Security.’ In Richards, R. and Ruse, M. (eds), Cambridge Companion to Evolutionary Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke-Doane, J. Forthcoming c. ‘What Is the Benacerraf Problem?’ In Pataut, F. (ed.), New Perspectives on the Philosophy of Paul Benacerraf: Truth, Objects, Infinity. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Enoch, D. 2011. Taking Morality Seriously. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Field, H. 1989. Realism, Mathematics, and Modality. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Field, H. 1996. ‘The A Prioricity of Logic.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 96: 359–79.Google Scholar
Field, H. 2001. Truth and the Absence of Fact. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1981. ‘A Subjectivist's Guide to Objective Chance.’ In Harper, W. L., Stalnaker, R., and Pearce, G. (eds), Ifs, pp. 267–97. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science. Amsterdam: Springer Netherlands.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1986. On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Nozick, R. 1981. Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Parfit, D. 2011. On What Matters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pust, J. 2004. ‘On Explaining Knowledge of Necessity.’ Dialectica, 58: 71–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Railton, P. 1978. ‘A Deductive-Nomological Model of Probabilistic Explanation.’ Philosophy of Science, 45: 206–26.Google Scholar
Railton, P. 1981. ‘Probability, Explanation, and Information.’ Synthese, 48: 233–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, G. ‘What Is Normative Necessity?’ Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/9159728/Normative_Necessity. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. C. 1971. Statistical Explanation and Statistical Relevance. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Schechter, J. 2010. ‘The Reliability Challenge and the Epistemology of Logic.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 24: 437–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schechter, J. 2013. ‘Could Evolution Explain Our Reliability about Logic?’ Oxford Studies in Epistemology, 4: 214–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Setiya, K. 2012. Knowing Right From Wrong. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Skarsaune, K. O. 2009. ‘Darwin and Moral Realism: Survival of the Iffiest.’ Philosophical Studies, 152: 229–43.Google Scholar
Street, S. 2006. ‘A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value.’ Philosophical Studies, 127: 109–66.Google Scholar
Street, S. 2008. ‘Reply to Copp: Naturalism, Normativity, and the Varieties of Realism Worth Worrying about.’ Philosophical Issues, 18: 207–28.Google Scholar
Strevens, M. 2008. Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
White, R. 2005a. ‘Explanation as a Guide to Induction.’ Philosophers' Imprint, 5: 1–29.Google Scholar
White, R. 2005b. ‘Why Favour Simplicity?’ Analysis, 65: 205–10.Google Scholar
White, R. 2007. ‘Does Origins of Life Research Rest on a Mistake?’ Noûs, 41: 453–77.Google Scholar
White, R. 2010. ‘You Just Believe That Because …’ Philosophical Perspectives, 24: 573–615.Google Scholar
Wielenberg, E. J. 2010. ‘On the Evolutionary Debunking of Morality.’ Ethics, 120: 441–64.Google Scholar