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ETD Abstract Container

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In Defense of Radical Empiricism

Ross, Ryan D.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3956-807X
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1429029776

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, Philosophy (Arts and Sciences).
Laurence BonJour defends a moderate version of rationalism against rivaling empiricist epistemologies. His moderate rationalism maintains that some beliefs are justified a priori in a way that does not reduce to mere analyticity, but he tempers this strong claim by saying that such justification is both fallible and empirically defeasible. With the aim of ruling out radical empiricism (the form of empiricism that repudiates the a priori), BonJour puts forth what he calls the “master argument.” According to this argument, the resources available to radical empiricists are too slender to allow for justified empirical beliefs that go beyond what is immediately available to sense-perception, e.g., what we see, hear, and taste. If so, then radical empiricists are committed to a severe form of skepticism, one in which it is impossible to have justified beliefs about the distant past, the future, unobserved aspects of the present, etc. Worse, radical empiricists, who pride themselves on their scientific worldview, would be unable to account for justified beliefs about the abstract, theoretical claims of science itself! Clearly, the master argument is intended to hit the radical empiricist where it hurts. Fortunately for the radical empiricist, however, it is possible to escape BonJour’s would be deathblow. One way to respond to BonJour is to adopt a holistic approach to justification. Another way is to reject a crucial assumption that BonJour makes about the nature of inferential justification. Either response allows radical empiricists to prevent their skepticism about the a priori from generalizing into a form of radical skepticism in which nothing is known at all.
John Bender, Ph.D. (Advisor)
67 p.
Epistemology
Radical Empiricism; Rationalism; BonJour; Quine; Coherentist Radical Empiricism

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ross, R. D. (2015). In Defense of Radical Empiricism [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1429029776

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ross, Ryan. In Defense of Radical Empiricism . 2015. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1429029776.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ross, Ryan. "In Defense of Radical Empiricism ." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1429029776

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.