NATURALIZED EPISTEMOLOGY

Quine on the failure of traditional epistemology: (a) the conceptual and (b) the doctrinal. Has traditional epistemology really failed?

Quine says that epistemology is a "chapter of psychology." What does this mean?

Psychologism in epistemology. Four kinds of psychologism:

(1) minimal psychologism;

(2) conceptual psychologism;

(3) the meliorative epistemological project;

(4) the reliability assessment project: using psychology to answer questions about the reliability of our cognitive processes. This would include responses to skeptical arguments.

Example: Quine uses evolutionary considerations to explain why our inferences about the future are generally true. Is this question-begging?

Recall our discussion of determining the reliability of non-separable sources of belief. How might someone argue that such determinations are NOT question-begging?

Quine's radical empiricism: All justification depends on experience; he denies that there is any a priori justification.

Quine's coherentism: Neurath's raft metaphor.

BonJour claims that if naturalized epistemology includes arguments for its positions, it is self-referentially inconsistent. What does this mean? How would the naturalized epistemologist reply?