Justification (also called epistemic justification) is a property of beliefs that fulfill certain norms about what a person should believe. Epistemologists often identify justification as a component of knowledge distinguishing it from mere true opinion. They study the reasons why someone holds a belief. Epistemologists are concerned with various features of belief, which include the ideas of warrant (a proper justification for holding a belief), knowledge, rationality, and probability, among others.

Debates surrounding epistemic justification often involve the structure of justification, including whether there are foundational justified beliefs or whether mere coherence is sufficient for a system of beliefs to qualify as justified. Another major subject of debate is the sources of justification, which might include perceptual experience (the evidence of the senses), reason, and authoritative testimony, among others.

Justification and knowledge

"Justification" involves the reasons why someone holds a belief that one should hold based on one's current evidence.. It is particularly associated with a theory discussed in his dialogues Meno and Theaetetus. While in fact Plato seems to disavow justified true belief as constituting knowledge at the end of Theaetetus, the claim that Plato unquestioningly accepted this view of knowledge stuck until the proposal of the Gettier problem.

William P. Alston criticizes the very idea of a theory of justification. He claims: "There isn't any unique, epistemically crucial property of beliefs picked out by 'justified'. Epistemologists who suppose the contrary have been chasing a will-o'-the-wisp. What has really been happening is this. Different epistemologists have been emphasizing, concentrating on, "pushing" different epistemic desiderata, different features of belief that are positively valuable from the standpoint of the aims of cognition."

See also

  • Critical thinking
  • Dream argument
  • Regress argument (epistemology)
  • Münchhausen trilemma

References

  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Foundationalist Theories of Epistemic Justification
  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemology, 2. What is Justification?
  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Internalist vs. Externalist Conceptions of Epistemic Justification
  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Coherentist Theories of Epistemic Justification

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemic Justification
  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemic Entitlement
  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Internalism and Externalism in Epistemology
  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemic Consequentialism
  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Coherentism in Epistemology
  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Contextualism in Epistemology
  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Knowledge-First Theories of Justification