Abstract

Philosophy of science includes the epistemology of natural science as a major component. The epistemology of natural science seeks a correct explanation of the conditions for scientific knowledge of the natural world. A central part of such epistemology is the theory of scientifically justified belief. A scientifically justified belief, roughly characterized, is a belief appropriately warranted to be a component of scientific knowledge. The conditions for a belief's being thus appropriately warranted attract much controversy among epistemologists of natural science.