Justification (also called epistemic justification) is the property of

belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...

that qualifies it as knowledge rather than mere opinion.

Epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

is the study of reasons that someone holds a rationally admissible belief (although the term is also sometimes applied to other

propositional attitudes A propositional attitude is a mental state held by an agent toward a proposition. Linguistically, propositional attitudes are denoted by a verb (e.g. "believed") governing an embedded "that" clause, for example, 'Sally believed that she had won ...

such as doubt). Epistemologists are concerned with various epistemic features of belief, which include the ideas of warrant (a proper justification for holding a belief),

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...

rationality Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abil ...

, and

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...

, among others. Debates surrounding epistemic justification often involve the ''structure'' of justification, including whether there are foundational justified beliefs or whether mere coherence is sufficient for a system of beliefs to qualify as justified. Another major subject of debate is the sources of justification, which might include

perceptual experience Experience refers to Consciousness, conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, ex ...

(the evidence of the senses),

reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

, and authoritative

testimony In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. La ...

, among others.

Justification and knowledge

"Justification" involves the reasons why someone holds a

that one ''should'' hold based on one's current evidence. Justification is a property of beliefs insofar as they are held blamelessly. In other words, a justified belief is a belief that a person is entitled to hold. Many philosophers from Plato onward have treated "

justified true belief Definitions of knowledge try to determine the essential features of knowledge. Closely related terms are conception of knowledge, theory of knowledge, and analysis of knowledge. Some general features of knowledge are widely accepted among philoso ...

" as constituting knowledge. It is particularly associated with a theory discussed in his dialogues ''

Meno ''Meno'' (; grc-gre, Μένων, ''Ménōn'') is a Socratic dialogue by Plato. Meno begins the dialogue by asking Socrates whether virtue is taught, acquired by practice, or comes by nature. In order to determine whether virtue is teachable ...

'' and '' Theaetetus''. While in fact Plato seems to disavow justified true belief as constituting knowledge at the end of ''Theaetetus'', the claim that Plato unquestioningly accepted this view of knowledge stuck until the proposal of the

Gettier problem The Gettier problem, in the field of epistemology, is a landmark philosophical problem concerning the understanding of descriptive knowledge. Attributed to American philosopher Edmund Gettier, Gettier-type counterexamples (called "Gettier-cases") ...

. The subject of justification has played a major role in the value of knowledge as "justified true belief". Some contemporary epistemologists, such as

Jonathan Kvanvig Jonathan Lee Kvanvig (born December 7, 1954) is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. Kvanvig has published extensively in areas such as epistemology, philosophy of religion, logic, and philosophy of language. Some of his ...

assert that justification isn't necessary in getting to the truth and avoiding errors. Kvanvig attempts to show that knowledge is no more valuable than true belief, and in the process dismissed the necessity of justification due to justification not being connected to the truth.

Conceptions of justification

William P. Alston identifies two conceptions of justification. One conception is "deontological" justification, which holds that justification evaluates the obligation and responsibility of a person having only true beliefs. This conception implies, for instance, that a person who has made his best effort but is incapable of concluding the correct belief from his evidence is still justified. The deontological conception of justification corresponds to epistemic internalism. Another conception is "truth-conducive" justification, which holds that justification is based on having sufficient evidence or reasons that entails that the belief is at least likely to be true. The truth-conductive conception of justification corresponds to epistemic externalism.

Theories of justification

There are several different views as to what entails justification, mostly focusing on the question "How sure do we need to be that our beliefs correspond to the actual world?" Different theories of justification require different conditions before a belief can be considered justified. Theories of justification generally include other aspects of epistemology, such as knowledge. Notable theories of justification include: *

Foundationalism Foundationalism concerns philosophical theories of knowledge resting upon non-inferential justified belief, or some secure foundation of certainty such as a conclusion inferred from a basis of sound premises.Simon Blackburn, ''The Oxford Dictio ...

– Basic beliefs justify other, non-basic beliefs. * Epistemic coherentism – Beliefs are justified if they cohere with other beliefs a person holds, each belief is justified if it coheres with the overall system of beliefs. *

Infinitism Infinitism is the view that knowledge may be justified by an infinite chain of reasons. It belongs to epistemology, the branch of philosophy that considers the possibility, nature, and means of knowledge. Epistemological infinitism Since Gettie ...

– Beliefs are justified by infinite chains of reasons. *

Foundherentism In epistemology, foundherentism is a theory of justification that combines elements from the two rival theories addressing infinite regress, foundationalism prone to arbitrariness, and coherentism prone to circularity (problems raised by the Mün ...

– A combination of foundationalism and epistemic coherentism, proposed by

Susan Haack Susan Haack (born 1945) is a distinguished professor in the humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, professor of philosophy, and professor of law at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Haack has written on logic, ...

Internalism Internalism and externalism are two opposite ways of integration of explaining various subjects in several areas of philosophy. These include human motivation, knowledge, justification, meaning, and truth. The distinction arises in many areas of de ...

– The believer must be able to justify a belief through internal knowledge. *

Externalism Externalism is a group of positions in the philosophy of mind which argues that the conscious mind is not only the result of what is going on inside the nervous system (or the brain), but also what ''occurs'' or ''exists'' outside the subject. It i ...

– Outside sources of knowledge can be used to justify a belief. *

Reformed epistemology In the philosophy of religion, Reformed epistemology is a school of philosophical thought concerning the nature of knowledge (epistemology) as it applies to religious beliefs. The central proposition of Reformed epistemology is that beliefs can be ...

– Beliefs are warranted by proper cognitive function, proposed by

Alvin Plantinga Alvin Carl Plantinga (born November 15, 1932) is an American analytic philosopher who works primarily in the fields of philosophy of religion, epistemology (particularly on issues involving epistemic justification), and logic. From 1963 to 198 ...

. * Epistemic skepticism – A variety of viewpoints questioning the possibility of knowledge *

Evidentialism Evidentialism is a thesis in epistemology which states that one is justified to believe something if and only if that person has evidence which supports said belief. Evidentialism is, therefore, a thesis about which beliefs are justified and which ...

– Beliefs depend solely on the evidence for them. *

Reliabilism Reliabilism, a category of theories in the philosophical discipline of epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosop ...

- A belief is justified if it is the result of a reliable process.

Criticism of theories of justification

Robert Fogelin Robert John Fogelin (June 24, 1932– October 24, 2016) was an American philosopher, and advocate and leading scholar of modern Pyrrhonism. He was a professor of philosophy and Sherman Fairchild Professor in the humanities (emeritus) at Dartmout ...

claims to detect a suspicious resemblance between the theories of justification and

Agrippa Agrippa may refer to: People Antiquity * Agrippa (mythology), semi-mythological king of Alba Longa * Agrippa (astronomer), Greek astronomer from the late 1st century * Agrippa the Skeptic, Skeptic philosopher at the end of the 1st century * Agri ...

's five modes leading to the suspension of belief. He concludes that the modern proponents have made no significant progress in responding to the ancient modes of

Pyrrhonian skepticism Pyrrhonism is a school of philosophical skepticism founded by Pyrrho in the fourth century BCE. It is best known through the surviving works of Sextus Empiricus, writing in the late second century or early third century CE. History Pyrrho of E ...

.Robert J. Fogelin, ''Pyrrhonian Reflections on Knowledge and Justification'', Oxford University Press, 1994, William P. Alston criticizes the very idea of a theory of justification. He claims: "There isn't any unique, epistemically crucial property of beliefs picked out by 'justified'. Epistemologists who suppose the contrary have been chasing a will-o'-the-wisp. What has really been happening is this. Different epistemologists have been emphasizing, concentrating on, "pushing" different epistemic desiderata, different features of belief that are positively valuable from the standpoint of the aims of cognition."William. P. Alston, ''Beyond "Justification": dimensions of epistemic evaluation'', Cornell University Press, 2005,

References

External links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Foundationalist Theories of Epistemic Justification

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemology, 2. What is Justification?

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Internalist vs. Externalist Conceptions of Epistemic Justification

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Coherentist Theories of Epistemic Justification

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemic Justification

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemic Entitlement

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Internalism and Externalism in Epistemology

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epistemic Consequentialism

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Coherentism in Epistemology

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Contextualism in Epistemology

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Knowledge-First Theories of Justification
{{Authority control Metatheory Justification (epistemology) Concepts in epistemology