Appearance and Explanation: Phenomenal Explanationism in Epistemology (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780192896872)

Phenomenal Conservatism (the view that an appearance that things are a particular way gives one prima facie justification for believing that they are that way) is a promising, and popular, internalist theory of epistemic justification. Despite its popularity, it faces numerous objections and challenges. For instance, epistemologists have argued that Phenomenal Conservatism is incompatible with Bayesianism, is afflicted by bootstrapping and cognitive penetration problems, does not guarantee that epistemic justification is a stable property, does not provide an account of defeat, and is not a complete theory of epistemic justification. This book shows that Phenomenal Conservatism is immune to some of these problems, but not all. Accordingly, it explores the prospects of integrating Phenomenal Conservatism with Explanationism (the view that epistemic justification is a matter of explanatory relations between one's evidence and propositions supported by that evidence). The resulting theory, Phenomenal Explanationism, has advantages over Phenomenal Conservatism and Explanationism taken on their own. Phenomenal Explanationism is a highly unified, comprehensive internalist theory of epistemic justification that delivers on the promises of Phenomenal Conservatism while avoiding its pitfalls.

Author: Kevin McCain, Luca Moretti
ISBN-10: 0192896873
ISBN-13: 9780192896872
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 03/03/2022
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 0.64d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2023