What is Justification ?

Deontological
and Non-
Deontological
Justification
Deontology

the study of the nature of duty and

obligation.
having to do with obligation, permission,
requirement, blame, and the like
Two issues:

What do we mean when we use the

word ‘justification’?
What makes beliefs justified?
Deontological Justification (DJ)

S is justified in believing that p if and

only if S believes that p while it is not the
case that S is obliged to refrain from
believing that p.
Deontological Justification (DJ)

I have a reason to believe something is

equivalent to saying I'm under no
obligation not to believe it, given
whatever further specific criteria
somebody would want to give
Deontological Justification (DJ)

 To say that Joan was legally justified in leaving the state is to say
that her doing so contravened no law; it is not to say that any law
required her to do so.

 “Consider my being justified in giving my epistemology class a take-

home final rather than one to be taken in the classroom. Here we
might be thinking of institutional justification, in which case the point
would be that no regulations of my department, college, or
university require a classroom final exam; but my being so justified
does not imply that any regulations require a take-home exam.”
Rejection of
Deontologi
cal deontological understanding
Justification of justification is unsuitable for
the purposes of epistemology
(DJ)
 DJ presupposes that we can
have a sufficiently high degree of
control over our beliefs. But beliefs
Argument 1 are akin not to actions but rather
things such as digestive
processes, sneezes, or involuntary
blinkings of the eye
 subjects are not obliged to
believe otherwise since they
are either cognitively
Argument 2
deficient or live in a
benighted (i.e., barbaric) and
isolated community
Non-Deontological Justification (NDJ)

S is justified in believing that p if and

only if S believes that p on a basis that
properly probabilifies S's belief that p.
Non-Deontological Justification (NDJ)

I have a reason to believe something is

equivalent to saying that I believe it
because the proper processes, perhaps
cognitive processes that allow me to
make certain factual connections for
example, result in the belief I have
Evidence vs.
Reliability
Evidentialism

the possession of evidence makes a belief

justifiable, where “possessing evidence”
means to be in a mental state that
represents p as being true
(e.g., experiences of perception,
introspection, memory, and rational intuition)
Reliablism

a belief is justified if, and only if, it results

from a cognitive origin that is reliable
(e.g., reliable processes such as
perception, introspection, memory, and
rational intuition)
Internal vs.
External
J-factors

things that make a belief justified or

unjustified
Internalism

justification hinges on mental experiences (associated with

evidentialism)

Accessibility internalism: J-factors: they

are always recognizable on reflection
Mentalist internalism: J-factors are always mental states
Two claims of TK evidentialists

Luminosity: One's own mind is cognitively luminous:

Relying on introspection, one can always recognize
on reflection what mental states one is in
Necessity: a priori recognizable, necessary principles
say what is evidence for what. Relying on a priori
insight, one can therefore always recognize on
reflection whether one's mental states are evidence
for p.
Externalism

Reliabilism rejects reject accessibility internalism:

justification will not always be recognizable on
reflection
Reliabilism rejects reject mentalist internalism:
mental states (e.g. perception) may not always be
reliable
Radical deception example

Evidentialism: a subject who is radically deceived

will be mislead about what is actually the case,
but not about what he is justified in believing.
Reliabilism: then such a subject will be misled
about both what is actually the case and what he
is justified in believing.
Mentalism

If two subjects, S and S*, are alike mentally,

then the justificational status of their beliefs is
alike as well: the same beliefs are justified or
unjustified for them to the same extent.
Why
Internalism?
"Justification is
deontological: it is a
matter of duty-fulfillment. Why
But duty-fulfillment is Internalism?
internal. Therefore,
justification is internal."
brain-in-the-vat Why
scenario Internalism?
internalism can be
supported by way of Why
making a case for Internalism?
evidentialism
Why
Externalism?
that animals and small
children have Why
knowledge and thus Externalism?
have justified beliefs
what we want from
justification is the kind of Why
objective probability Externalism?
needed for knowledge