PHIL 450: Study Questions for Coherentism

1. Explain or distinguish the following terms. You may use examples to do so:

Coherence Theory of Truth/Coherence Theory of Justification

symmetric/asymmetric justificatory relations

antecedent/subsequent security

2. (a) What is the coherentists' way out of the regress problem? [Hint: How does the coherentists' account of reasoning differ from the foundationalists'?] (b) How can the coherentist take this way out without endorsing circular arguments?

3. (a) What is the input problem for coherentism? (b) Explain how the example of the paranoid schizophrenic illustrates the input problem. (c) In response to this problem, Dancy argues that a coherentist can be an empiricist. Is this correct? [To adequately answer this question, you must distinguish between antecedent and subsequent security.]