Foundationalism and its Discontents

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Lecture 4

• Foundationalism and its Discontents

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Propositions

• A proposition is the meaning of a sentence.
• So snow is white and neige est blanc express
  the same proposition.
• Propositions represent the way the world might
  be. They tend to come after that

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• Four score and seven years ago our fathers
  brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
  conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
  proposition that all men are created equal.

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• Four score and seven years ago our fathers
  brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
  conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
  proposition that all men are created equal

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Propositions

• Yes we can.
• There's not a liberal America and a conservative
  America - there's the United States of America.
• Not propositions
• Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a
  politics of hope?
• Why cant I just eat my waffle?

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• Propositions
• Are either true of false.
• Are the objects of our attitudes (beliefs, hopes,
  desires).
• Express a way the world might be.
• Have logical relations to each other.

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Justifiers and Truth-Makers

• For every true belief, there is some part of the
  world that makes it true.
• Santa is a part-time professional wrestler.
• Some part of the world (this part)
• makes that belief true.

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Justifiers and Truth-Makers

• Similarly, for every justified belief, there is
  some part of the world that makes it justified.
• Ss belief Santa is a part-time professional
  wrestler.
• Some part of the world makes that belief
  justified.
• What part could that be?

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What part of the world does the justifying?

• 1. Ss other beliefs.
• S believes that Santa bears an uncanny
  resemblance to Big Van Vader, Santa needs the
  money, Santa and Vader are never seen together.

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What part of the world does the justifying?

• 2. Ss experiences S is hanging out with Santa,
  who then changes into his Van Vader outfit and
  starts doing elbow drops.

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• If you think that experiences can justify
  beliefs, you are a foundationalist, just like
  Chisholm.
• What justifies the belief Im hungry is the
  experience.

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Im hungry
(Relation of justification)
Experience
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Im being appeared to whitely
(Relation of justification)
Experience
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I believe I desire some BC bud
(Relation of justification)
I desire some BC bud
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Summary of Chisholm

• Basic beliefs are justified by mental states
  other than beliefs.
• Furthermore, they are justified by two kinds of
  mental state
• 1. Experiences / appearances / phenomenal states
• 2. Propositional attitude states / beliefs,
  hopes, fears, desires.
• These states are the given.

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Foundationalism The Pyramid
P41

• What justifies basic beliefs?
• Experiences and propositional attitudes.

P31
P21
P21
P13
P12
P11
Basic Beliefs
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• Why do experiences and propositional attitudes
  have this special status?
• Perhaps because we have direct access to our
  experiences and propositional attitudes?
• Compare our access to how we are feeling to our
  access to the external world.

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Why does Chisholm say they are self-justifying
beliefs?

• Because they are justified by the very
  proposition that is believed.
• Consider I believe I am hungry
• The proposition believed is I am hungry.
• The justification of I believe I am hungry is
  I am hungry.
• The justification of the belief is the
  proposition believed.

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• Consequence If a basic belief is justified then
  it is true.
• Why?
• If beliefs are justifiers, those beliefs can be
  false.
• But if experiences are justifiers, those
  experiences must exist.

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Objections to Foundationalism

• 1. Experiences alone are never sufficient to
  justify a belief. A justified belief also
  requires justification regarding how words are
  used (Reichenbach).

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Hungry experiences Euphoric experiences
?
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Im hungry
(Relation of justification)
This feeling is called being hungry
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• Distinguish what justifies the belief from what
  justifies your use of these words to express the
  beliefs.

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There are apples in the basket
Il y a des pommes dans le panier
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There are apples in the basket
Il y a des pommes dans le panier
Há maçãs na cesta
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• Distinguish what justifies the belief from what
  justifies your use of these words to express the
  beliefs.
• Their belief that there are apples in the basket
  is justified by one set of facts.
• Her belief that the words Il y a des pommes dans
  le panier expresses her belief that there are
  apples in the basket is justified by a different
  set of facts.

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Laurence Bonjour

• 1943-
• Studied at Princeton with
• Richard Rorty.
• Best known for his coherence
• theory of knowledge.
• Recently defended some crazy views about the a
  priori with considerable skill.

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Bonjours Argument

• Only a proposition can be a reason.

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Thinking about reasons

• Dick Cheney eats orphans.
• Therefore someone eats orphans.
• You must be home before dark.
• Therefore you must be home before 330

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Thinking about reasons

• Think back to the forms of argument we looked at.
• (1) If A, then Bt to the store
• (2) Not B
• (3) ? Not A
• (1) If A, then Bt to the store
• (2) Not B
• (3) ? Not A
• A and B are propositions
• Propositions stand in logical relations to each
  other.

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The Foundationalist Position

• Therefore, you must be home before 330.
• Huh?
• How could a thing justify belief in a
  proposition? Its the wrong kind of object.

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Clarification

• The proposition there is a tree may justify
  certain proposition.
• Or the fact that there is a tree may justify
  certain proposition.
• But the foundationalist seems committed to saying
  that the tree justifies things!

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The Foundationalist Position

• Therefore I feel hungry.

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Bonjours Dilemma for the Foundationalist

• Either
• 1. The justifiers of basic beliefs are not
  propositions (are not cognitive states).
• Then they are the wrong kind of thing to do any
  justifying.
• 2. The justifiers of basic beliefs are
  propositions (are cognitive states).
• Then surely they need to be justified.

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Bonjours Second Argument

• Foundationlist claim There is a certain category
  of belief that has basic justification.
• Those beliefs must have some property ? in virtue
  of which they are justified.
• Eg. ? might be the property of being a belief
  about ones own experiences.

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The Storm Brewing

• In order for some property ? to justify a belief,
  having ? must make the belief more likely to be
  true!
• And what justifies us in thinking that beliefs
  with feature ? are likely to be true?

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Argument foundationalist is committed to,
according to Bonjour

• 1. Belief B has feature ?.
• 2. Beliefs having feature ? are likely to be
  true.
• 3. Therefore B is likely to be true.
• How is 2. to be justified?

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Argument foundationalist is committed to
according to Bonjour

• 1. Belief B is about ones own experience.
• 2. Beliefs about ones own experience are likely
  to be true.
• 3. Therefore B is likely to be true.
• How is 2. to be justified?

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• Suppose our beliefs about our experiences are
  systematically wrong. Suppose that often we
  believe we feel hungry when in fact we have an
  itchy nose.
• Then beliefs about our experiences are not
  usually true.
• How could we possible justify the belief that
  they are usually true?

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• Foundationalist response The agent does not need
  to have a justified belief that beliefs having
  feature ? are likely to be true.
• But then it looks like the justifying fact is
  external to the agent.

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Wilfrid Sellars

• 1912-1989
• American philosopher
• Taught at Pittsburgh
• Best known for his
• critique of foundationalism

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Authority

• Sellars claims that any sentence that expresses
  knowledge must have authority.

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• Sellars claims that any sentence that expresses
  knowledge must be justified.
• Sellars then claims that no belief can be
  justified without a whole lot of other beliefs.
  Why?