Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-2h6rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T02:18:04.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Transmission, Skepticism, and Conditions of Warrant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2019

Marc Alspector-Kelly
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University
Get access

Summary

In this chapter I argue that epistemologists have no cause to be dismayed by transmission failure in Dretske cases. Some might worry that transmission failure robs us of the classical Moorean response to skepticism. I show that this response is either superfluous for or incapable of protecting ordinary knowledge from skeptical attack. I then argue that transmission fails on three popular conditions of warrant. The first is safety: although S’s belief in Q must be safe in order for her belief in P to be safe, her inference cannot contribute to the safety of her belief in Q. The second is reliabilism: I argue that any belief-forming process that violates NIFN must be understood to be ipso facto unreliable if reliabilism is to be at all tenable. As a result, closure fails in Dretske cases, which implies that transmission also fails. The third is evidentialism: since ~Q implies that S retains her evidence, it follows that that evidence undermines, rather than supports, Q. I argue for this from both a Bayesian standpoint and from a broader, intuitive standpoint.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×