Fading Foundations : Probability and the Regress Problem / by David Atkinson, Jeanne Peijnenburg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Atkinson, David, Author.

Peijnenburg, Adriana Johanna Maria, 1952- Author.

Series:

Synthese Library, Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, 2542-8292 ; 383

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Knowledge, Theory of.

Logic, Symbolic and mathematical.

Statistics.

Physics--Philosophy.

Physics.

Operations research.

Epistemology.

Mathematical Logic and Foundations.

Statistical Theory and Methods.

Philosophical Foundations of Physics and Astronomy.

Operations Research and Decision Theory.

Local Subjects:

Epistemology.

Mathematical Logic and Foundations.

Statistical Theory and Methods.

Philosophical Foundations of Physics and Astronomy.

Operations Research and Decision Theory.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (XI, 238 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2017.

Place of Publication:

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2017.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book addresses the age-old problem of infinite regresses in epistemology. How can we ever come to know something if knowing requires having good reasons, and reasons can only be good if they are backed by good reasons in turn? The problem has puzzled philosophers ever since antiquity, giving rise to what is often called Agrippa's Trilemma. The current volume approaches the old problem in a provocative and thoroughly contemporary way. Taking seriously the idea that good reasons are typically probabilistic in character, it develops and defends a new solution that challenges venerable philosophical intuitions and explains why they were mistakenly held. Key to the new solution is the phenomenon of fading foundations, according to which distant reasons are less important than those that are nearby. The phenomenon takes the sting out of Agrippa's Trilemma; moreover, since the theory that describes it is general and abstract, it is readily applicable outside epistemology, notably to debates on infinite regresses in metaphysics. The book is a potential game-changer and a must for any advanced student or researcher in the field.

Contents:

1. The Regress Problem

2. Epistemic Justification

3. The Probabilistic Regress

4. Fading Foundations and the Emergence of Justification

5 Finite Minds

6. Conceptual Objections

7. Higher-Order Probabilities

8. Loops and Networks.

Notes:

CC BY

ISBN:

9783319582955

331958295X

OCLC:

994135021