On the Coherence of Higher-order Beliefs
Author
Summary, in English
Abstract in Undetermined
Let us by first-order beliefs mean beliefs about the world, such as the belief that it will rain tomorrow, and by second-order beliefs let us mean beliefs about the reliability of first-order, belief-forming processes. In formal epistemology, coherence has been studied, with much ingenuity and precision, for sets of first-order beliefs. However, to the best of our knowledge, sets including second-order beliefs have not yet received serious attention in that literature. In informal epistemology, by contrast, sets of the latter kind play an important role in some respectable coherence theories of knowledge and justification. In this paper, we extend the formal treatment of coherence to second-order beliefs. Our main conclusion is that while extending the framework to second-order beliefs sheds doubt on the generality of the notorious impossibility results for coherentism, another problem crops up that might be no less damaging to the coherentist project: facts of coherence turn out to be epistemically accessible only to agents who have a good deal of insight into matters external to their own belief states.
Let us by first-order beliefs mean beliefs about the world, such as the belief that it will rain tomorrow, and by second-order beliefs let us mean beliefs about the reliability of first-order, belief-forming processes. In formal epistemology, coherence has been studied, with much ingenuity and precision, for sets of first-order beliefs. However, to the best of our knowledge, sets including second-order beliefs have not yet received serious attention in that literature. In informal epistemology, by contrast, sets of the latter kind play an important role in some respectable coherence theories of knowledge and justification. In this paper, we extend the formal treatment of coherence to second-order beliefs. Our main conclusion is that while extending the framework to second-order beliefs sheds doubt on the generality of the notorious impossibility results for coherentism, another problem crops up that might be no less damaging to the coherentist project: facts of coherence turn out to be epistemically accessible only to agents who have a good deal of insight into matters external to their own belief states.
Department/s
- Theoretical Philosophy
- Lund University Information Quality Research Group (LUIQ)
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Pages
112-135
Publication/Series
The Southern Journal of Philosophy
Volume
50
Issue
1
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Topic
- Philosophy
Status
Published
Research group
- Lund University Information Quality Research Group (LUIQ)
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 2041-6962