Absolutely Certain Beliefs

Philosophy Research Archives 11:393-406 (1985)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper presents a critical review and discussion of three recent major theories of epistemic scepticism. Odegard and Rescher both agree that real knowledge entails certain beliefs. But they both fail to see how beliefs could be absolutely certain. Klein’s book, Certainty: A Refutationof Scepticism, presents the strongest possible view in favor of absolute certainty. I pay attention to its technical details and development by Klein. My conclusion is that Klein’s theory rests on some presupposed ideas that are either counterintuitive or then make the theory trivial: one’s certainty of truth becomes the same as the truth itself.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,386

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Why Certainty is Not a Mansion.Elly Vintiadis - 2006 - Journal of Philosophical Research 31:143-152.
Klein on Relative Certainty.Rod Bertolet - 1987 - Philosophy Research Archives 13:271-274.
The problem of insulation.Wai-hung Wong - 2002 - Philosophy 77 (3):349-373.
Sets, properties, and unrestricted quantification.Øystein Linnebo - 2006 - In Gabriel Uzquiano & Agustin Rayo (eds.), Absolute Generality. Oxford University Press. pp. 149--178.
Epistemic Compatibilism and Cannonical Beliefs.Peter D. Klein - 1990 - In Roth Michael & Ross Glenn (eds.), Doubting: Contemporary Perspetcives on Scepticism. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Evidence for God from Certainty.Katherin A. Rogers - 2008 - Faith and Philosophy 25 (1):31-46.
Certainty, a refutation of scepticism.Peter David Klein - 1981 - Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Empirical knowledge; readings from contemporary sources.Roderick M. Chisholm - 1973 - Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,: Prentice-Hall. Edited by Robert J. Swartz.
Foundationalism and arbitrariness.Daniel Howard-Snyder - 2005 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 86 (1):18–24.
Crossing the Milvian bridge: When do evolutionary explanations of belief debunk belief?Paul E. Griffiths & John S. Wilkins - 2015 - In Phillip R. Sloan, Gerald McKenny & Kathleen Eggleson (eds.), Darwin in the Twenty-First Century: Nature, Humanity, and God. University of Notre Dame Press. pp. 201-231.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-12-02

Downloads
55 (#284,906)

6 months
4 (#800,606)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references