Justification without Awareness: A Defense of Epistemic Externalism [Hardcover]

Michael Bergmann (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0199275742 | ISBN-13: 978-0199275748 | Publication Date: July 20, 2006

Virtually all philosophers agree that for a belief to be epistemically justified, it must satisfy certain conditions. Perhaps it must be supported by evidence. Or perhaps it must be reliably formed. Or perhaps there are some other "good-making" features it must have. But does a belief's justification also require some sort of awareness of its good-making features? The answer to this question has been hotly contested in contemporary epistemology, creating a deep divide among its practitioners. Internalists, who tend to focus on scientific or theoretical beliefs as the ideal, insist that such awareness is required for justification. Externalists, who think children's ordinary beliefs in obvious facts are paradigm cases of justified belief, say it isn't required. Michael Bergmann's book offers a decisive refutation of internalism and a sustained defense of externalism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Justification Without Awareness, Bergmann offers both powerful criticisms of various internalist accounts of epistemic justification and a sustained exposition and defense of his own externalist alternative. It is one the best books in epistemology that I have read over the past couple of decades and it is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the fundamental metaepistemological debates that dominate contemporary epistemology."--Richard Fumerton, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

About the Author

Michael Bergmann is at Purdue University, Indiana.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199275742
• ISBN-13: 978-0199275748
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,149,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Defense Of Externalism Regarding Justification, August 8, 2010

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This review is from: Justification without Awareness: A Defense of Epistemic Externalism (Paperback)

'Justification without Awareness' is a defense of "externalism about epistemic justification." This defense has two parts, each taking up about half of the book. The first part is a critique of internalist accounts of justification. The critique is a dilemma. According to Bergmann, internalist accounts of justification lead to either radical skepticism or are unmotivated. Since neither is acceptable, Bergmann rejects internalist accounts of justification. In their place, he offers an "externalist" account of justification in the second part. Bergmann's account is a proper-functionalist account, where an agent's belief is justified if the agent is properly functioning, according to a truth-conducive design plan with a high probability of producing true beliefs, and takes there to be no defeaters for that belief. Bergmann then spends a chapter distinguishing between different types of defeaters. The last two chapters of Bergmann's book are defenses of externalism against two objections: that externalism must approve of epistemic circularity and handles the skeptical challenge inadequately.

To be honest, I really enjoyed this book and thought, in a certain way, it was needed. I'm drawn to Plantinga's account of warrant, but always felt he was missing a "no-defeater" condition. Bergmann's book is a solid attempt to provide that condition; in my mind, it fills a `gap' in the proper-functionalist camp. His account itself is interesting and subtle. Because the book is an extended defense of this account, it has the additional strength of being highly focused. Both parts of the book come together to make a strong defense of Bergmann's view. Different chapters build upon each other, providing a nice holistic treatment of justification. Bergmann also does a great job setting up, and defending his dilemma. In the end, I'm not sure if Bergmann's right on either his critique of internalism or his externalist account; regardless it remains an excellent and rich book, full of sharp distinction and lucid discussion.