A decision procedure for epistemology?

✍ Scribed by Mark Pastin

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 619 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8116
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00357695

✦ Synopsis

Keith Lehrer's recent work raises the question of whether epistemic problems can be viewed as decision problems. 1 He claims that a decision-theoretic approach explains why beliefs are justified and why principles of justification are defeasible, avoids dogmatism, and favors his own brand of coherentism. I argue that, while there is good anti-dogmatic, methodological motivation for taking a decision-theoretic approach to epistemic problems, there are serious difficulties with the approach. I try to honor this motivation in offering a new approach to epistemic problems.