Epistemology (cht)

Hierarchical chart of the epistemological traditions.

Summary of content

• Internalist — the justification is in the mind
  • Foundationalism — looks for beliefs that are self-justifying; basic and non-basic beliefs
    • Epistemic (Classical) — our ordinary beliefs require support from other beliefs, on which they rest.
    • Contemporary (Moderate, Fallibilist) — defensible basic propositions capable of being refuted by additional knowledge
  • Holistic Coherentism — looks for consistency within a comprehensive system; rests on a set of beliefs; no basic beliefs
    • Negative — a belief lacks justification if it fails to cohere with the system of beliefs.
    • Positive — a belief is justified when it coheres with the system of set beliefs.
• Externalist — the justification is found outside the self
  • Reliabilist — the reliability of the process by which one arrives at one’s belief
  • Contextualist — dependence of language on its usage in the context of everyday life
  • Naturalized epistemology — uses the natural sciences to answer questions about justification