Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
12-2014
Abstract
I argue that a Humean account can make sense of the phenomenology associated with testimonial justification; the phenomenology being that in standard cases hearers regularly simply accept a testifier’s assertions as true – hearers don't engage in monitoring. The upshot is that a Humean account is in a better position dialectically than is usually supposed. I provide some background to the debate before setting out two challenges facing accounts of testimonial justification. The first challenge is to provide an account that accords with the phenomenology of testimonial reception; the second challenge is to provide an account that can make sense of some testimonial beliefs enjoying greater justification than others. I show the credulist position to be vulnerable to the second challenge and the Humean position to be vulnerable to the first challenge. I argue that a Humean account, by drawing on dual process theory, can overcome the first challenge.
Keywords
Humean account, testimonial justification, phenomenology, acceptance, testifier, assertions, monitoring, dialectically, credulist position, dual process theory
Discipline
Epistemology
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Logos and Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology
Volume
5
Issue
2
First Page
209
Last Page
219
ISSN
2069-0533
Identifier
10.5840/logos-episteme20145216
Publisher
Institutul European
Citation
RYAN, Shane.(2014). A humean account of testimonial justification. Logos and Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology, 5(2), 209-219.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3694
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
http://doi.org/10.5840/logos-episteme20145216