Coherentism

Coherentism has not gained much recognition throughout the history of philosophy. According to the traditional definition of knowledge, knowledge is Justified True Belief. Hence, one must first justify their belief before they can acquire any knowledge. Since most of the time the beliefs we assume we have justified and are justified based on other belief. Consequently, this promotes the concept of regress argument where the philosophers are on the quest to truly justify a belief thus we can know for sure that we have knowledge. Coherentist attempts to solve the regress problem by suggesting a system of beliefs where the justification is done by referring to other beliefs within the relevant justified system. In this essay, I will focus on the…

Is coherentism about justification plausible? When it comes to the acquisition of a true belief leading to knowledge, it is thought that these beliefs should be justified. Coherentism is a form of internal, non-linear justification which holds the idea that for a belief to be justified in any way it must cohere with a current system of beliefs. BonJour wrote that 'what justifies beliefs is the way they fit together' , in essence, for beliefs to be justified they must metaphorically form a…

finding truth, while effective at ultimately fostering positive change in society, is conversely useless in advancing real development in moral law. Additionally, coherentism often poses a detriment to those affected through the process, that could otherwise be avoided with introspective thought and techniques posed by Young, that avoid the process altogether; in essence producing a good result that was not necessarily the product of a good process for people that could have believed in good…

Helen Longino is a feminist epistemologist who argues that in order to reduce the chance of having subjective beliefs and have more objective knowledge, we must expand our epistemic communities. I think that Longino’s solution is more palatable than either foundationalism or coherentism. An epistemic community is the community that we hold our beliefs in. By expanding that community, there are more inputs on certain beliefs. If I have a belief that coincides with my epistemic community, but my…

there are some properties that I can use to derive my proof. I would use those properties, regardless of whether I strongly believe those properties or not. If I were to successfully prove that the equation is true, then I can say that my evidences are the book’s properties and that I’m justified in believing my method of proving; therefor, I’m justified in believing the equation. So, Alex is also justified in believing proposition q because he has evidence for p and evidence for “if p then q”.…

with the sense, in where we used the five senses to determine what is happening around us. What we feel, see, hear, taste, and tough help us obtain concrete evidence of knowledge through experience. 12. Explain the difference between A priori and A posteriori knowledge. A priori knowledge is knowledge that is true and obtained without experience. This type of knowledge is based on logic, similarly to rationalism. However, a posteriori knowledge is empiricists in which knowledge is gained after…

international relations, whereas I do not. Therefore, she must know more than I do. Nonetheless, a skeptic could repeat the question: how do we know that her degree makes her trustworthy? A skeptic could then repeatedly question the justifications by asking questions such as where did the professor learn the material from? What makes that material valid? …and so on. Since it is impractical to keep questioning ideas without ever reaching a conclusion, certainly there must be some way to address…

Rationalism is a method of acquiring knowledge by means of logic and reason it claims that knowledge is arrived at by means of our minds. Empiricism is a method of acquiring knowledge by means of observation, inquiry, and experience. 12. A posterior knowledge is acquired after some experience. For example: I know that the book will fall down after I release it. I know that the sun sets in the west. A prior is arrived at without experience and is necessary and certain. For example: a cat is a…

they call Hegel’s comeback to Analytic Philosophy. I would not consider my reading as Analytic, however. My intent is to provide an interpretation of Hegel’s Self-Consciousness that would cohere with the whole Phenomenology. Even though I agree with most of the contemporary interpretations of Hegel, I do accept the need for intersubjectivity observed in its traditional interpretations. After all, ‘Self-consciousness achieves its satisfaction only in another self-consciousness’ (M175). McDowell…