Does Klein’s infinitism offer a response to Agrippa’s trilemma?

Synthese 190 (6):1113-1130 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The regress of reasons threatens an epistemic agent’s right to claim that any beliefs are justified. In response, Peter Klein’s infinitism argues that an infinite series of supporting reasons of the right type not only is not vicious but can make for epistemic justification. In order to resist the sceptic, infinitism needs to provide reason to think that there is at least one justified belief in the world. Under an infinitist conception this involves showing that at least one belief is supported by an infinite series of supporting reasons. This paper argues that showing this makes problems for the infinitist. The finite minds problem that prevents completion of an infinite series is well documented. This paper examines alternative attempts to provide evidence of infinity that the infinitist might take, whether by using a notion of justification without infinite reasons or by altering the notion of evidence. It concludes that both of these fail and consequently infinitism is unable to offer a solution to Agrippa’s trilemma

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,349

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

The trouble with infinitism.Andrew D. Cling - 2004 - Synthese 138 (1):101 - 123.
On the regress argument for infinitism.John Turri - 2009 - Synthese 166 (1):157 - 163.
Infinitism redux? A response to Klein.Carl Gillett - 2003 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66 (3):709–717.
Infinitism, finitude and normativity.John Turri - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 163 (3):791-795.
Why Not Infinitism?Peter D. Klein - 2000 - Epistemology 5:199-208.
Foundationalism for Modest Infinitists.John Turri - 2010 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 40 (2):275-283.
Human knowledge and the infinite progress of reasoning.Peter Klein - 2007 - Philosophical Studies 134 (1):1 - 17.
Justification by an Infinity of Conditional Probabilities.David Atkinson & Jeanne Peijnenburg - 2009 - Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 50 (2):183-193.
Is Klein an infinitist about doxastic justification?Michael Bergmann - 2007 - Philosophical Studies 134 (1):19 - 24.
Prospects for A Levinasian Epistemic Infinitism.J. Aaron Simmons & Scott F. Aikin - 2012 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 20 (3):437-460.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-03-14

Downloads
151 (#121,386)

6 months
8 (#352,434)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Stephen Wright
University of Oxford

References found in this work

The structure of empirical knowledge.Laurence BonJour - 1985 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Science, Perception and Reality.Wilfrid Sellars (ed.) - 1963 - New York,: Humanities Press.
Elusive knowledge.David K. Lewis - 1996 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (4):549 – 567.

View all 44 references / Add more references