What is Naturalized Epistemology

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Lecture 16

• What is Naturalized Epistemology?

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Jaegwon Kim

• Korean-American philosopher
• Teaches at Brown
• Mainly works on philosophy
• of mind and supervenience.

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Background distinction

• Normative language.
• Wrong, justification, should, ought.
• Murder is wrong
• Thats irresponsible
• He should be punished

• Descriptive language.
• is, was, will be.
• He killed Bob.
• Bobs children are orphans.
• Sucks to be Bobs children

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Quines Argument

• 1. Scientific beliefs cannot be
• derived from phenomenal beliefs.
• 2. Therefore scientific beliefs cannot
• be justified by phenomenal beliefs.
• 3. Therefore we should stop trying to justify our
  beliefs.

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• 1. Scientific beliefs cannot be
• derived from phenomenal beliefs.
• 2. Therefore scientific beliefs cannot
• be justified by phenomenal beliefs.
• Justification need not
• be deductive.

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Non-deductive justification

• 1. Coherentism
• 2. Basic beliefs require only initial
  credibility, rather than certainty.
• 3. Permit probabilistic derivation.
• 4. Permit processes that permit some degree of
  justification.
• p.542.

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• 1. Coherentism
• Beliefs Tom is usually late. Ive arranged to
  meet Tom at 5.
• Tom will turn up after 5.

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• 2. Basic beliefs require only initial
  credibility, rather than certainty.
• Descartes would only start with certain beliefs
  eg. phenomenal beliefs.
• But suppose thats a tomato is a foundational
  belief. Then perhaps we can derive science from
  foundational beliefs.

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• 3. Permit probabilistic derivation.
• Our experiences makes it likely that there are
  electrons.
• Our belief in electrons is justified.

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• 1. Scientific beliefs cannot be
• derived from phenomenal beliefs.
• 2. Therefore scientific beliefs cannot
• be justified by phenomenal beliefs.
• 1. We cannot get to Hawaii by car.
• 2. Therefore we cannot get to Hawaii.

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Could psychology replace epistemology?

• No.
• Why is P believed?
• 1. It was caused by x
• 2. The agent believes Q (which is evidence for
  P).
• These are separate questions.

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• 1. It was caused by x

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• 1. It was caused by x

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• Why is P believed?
• 2. The agent believes Q (which is evidence for
  P).

S
P
Q
R
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Propositional Justification
Son survived
Feels it in her bones
News report
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Causation
Son survived
Feels it in her bones
News report
The belief is (propositionally) justified, but
not well-founded.
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Well-foundedness / Doxastic justification
Son survived
Feels it in her bones
News report
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Belief is essentially normative

• We cannot separate belief from normativity /
  justification.
• If we dispense with belief,
• we dispense with justification.

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• 1. We cannot interpret someone as believing P
  unless we assume they are rational.
• Being rational Having justified beliefs /
  performing justified actions.

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• Willy sees a tomato. We ascribe the belief
  thats a tomato. But what if Willy forms the
  belief I hate my life on seeing a tomato?
• We can only ascribe beliefs to agents that are
  rational.

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• Suppose someone acted completely erratically.
• How could we ascribe them any beliefs?

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Could psychology replace epistemology?

• No.
• Why is P believed?
• 1. It was caused by x
• 2. The agent believes Q (which is evidence for
  P).
• These are separate questions.
• But they are not entirely
• independent

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• Some theories of justification say that the
  causal process matters.
• eg. Reliabilism A belief is justified if and
  only if it is produced by a reliable process.
• Perhaps the reliabilist is a naturalized
  epistemologist?
• Dispensing with justification?

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• NO!
• The reliabilist is giving a theory of
  justification.

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• Reliabilism is giving a theory of justification
  in non-normative / descriptive / naturalistic
  terms.
• Thats what we should expect.
• If a belief is justified, it must be justified in
  virtue of some descriptive properties it has.

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• Compare good If an act is good, it is good
  because of some descriptive property it has eg.
  maximizing happiness.
• It cant be good simply because it is right, or
  just, or some other moral term.

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• Whats novel about reliabilism is that it is
  psychologistic.
• Psychologistic theories of justification Whether
  a belief is justified depends on the
  psychological state of the agent (not just the
  belief state).
• Apsychologistic theories of justification
• the content of beliefs of the agent.