1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910231237903321

Autore

Atkinson David

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

2017

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

ISBN

9783319582955

331958295X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2017.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XI, 238 p.)

Collana

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

Classificazione

BUS049000MAT018000MAT029000PHI004000SCI055000

Disciplina

120

Soggetti

Knowledge, Theory of

Logic, Symbolic and mathematical

Statistics

Physics - Philosophy

Operations research

Epistemology

Mathematical Logic and Foundations

Statistical Theory and Methods

Philosophical Foundations of Physics and Astronomy

Operations Research and Decision Theory

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

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.