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Fading Foundations [electronic resource] : Probability and the Regress Problem / by David Atkinson, Jeanne Peijnenburg.
By: Atkinson, David [author.].
Contributor(s): Peijnenburg, Jeanne [author.] | SpringerLink (Online service).
Material type:
TextSeries: Synthese Library, Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science: 383Publisher: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2017Description: XI, 238 p. online resource.Content type: text Media type: computer Carrier type: online resourceISBN: 9783319582955.Subject(s): Philosophy | Operations research | Decision making | Epistemology | Mathematical logic | Physics | Statistics | Philosophy | Epistemology | Mathematical Logic and Foundations | Statistical Theory and Methods | History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics | Operation Research/Decision TheoryAdditional physical formats: Printed edition:: No titleDDC classification: 120 Online resources: Click here to access online
Contents:
In:
Springer eBooksSummary: 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.
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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.
Open Access
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.