This paper critically evaluates the regress argument for infinitism. The dialectic is essentially this. Peter Klein argues that only an infinitist can, without being dogmatic, enhance the credibility of a questioned non-evident proposition. In response, I demonstrate that a foundationalist can do this equally well. Furthermore, I explain how foundationalism can provide for infinite chains of ju...

Abstract There is a ubiquitous claim in the grounding literature that metaphysical foundationalism violates principle of sufficient reason (PSR) virtue positing level ungrounded facts. I argue foundationalists can accept PSR if they are willing to replace fundamentality as independence with completeness and deny ground strict partial order. The upshot be compatible both infinitism, so presuppos...

Complexity-nonlinear dynamics for my purposes in this essay-is rich with metaphysical and epistemological implications but is receiving sustained philosophical analysis only recently. I will explore some of the subtleties of causation and constraint in Rayleigh-Bénard convection as an example of a complex phenomenon, and extract some lessons for further philosophical reflection on top-down cons...

T HE problem of the Cartesian Circle is sometimes treated as though it were merely an exercise for scholars: Descartes fell into it, and their job is to get him out of it. But more is at stake than extricating Descartes. In its generalized form, the Cartesian Circle is none other than the Problem of the Criterion, a problem that any epistemology must face. Moreover, to solve the problem of the ...

Neuroscience offers more than new empirical evidence about the details of cognitive functions such as language, perception and action. Since it also shows many functions to be highly distributed, interconnected and dependent on mechanisms at different levels of processing, it challenges concepts that are traditionally used to describe these functions. The question is how to accommodate these co...

Aims of the Unit The overall purpose of this unit is to get you to read some writings by feminists and see the profoundly new and perhaps unsettling epistemological ideas they have put forward. We hope that by the end of the unit no one will characterise feminist philosophers of science as a unified school. Objectives By the end of this unit you should be able to:) See some limitations of groun...

Experiential acquaintance is an alleged relation between ourselves and our experiences that has sometimes been hypothesised as necessary for knowledge of experiences. This paper begins with a clarification ‘acquaintance’ explanation ‘experience’ focuses attention on famous, but flawed, argument by G. E. Moore. It goes to critically examine several recent arguments concerning experiential show h...