PHIL 450

Discussion Questions on externalism and internalism.

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

Externalist Accounts of Knowledge/Justification

World-to-Belief Reliability/Belief-to-World Reliability

Access/Psychological Internalism

2. Gettier describes an example of Smith, Jones, and Brown. In that example, what is the justified true belief of Smith that does not qualify as knowledge? Explain.

3. There are two articles by Alvin Goldman. The first is about knowledge; the second is about justified belief. In the first article, Goldman gives the example of Henry and the papier-maché barns. In the example, what is Henry's justified true belief that does not qualify as knowledge? Explain.

4. What is Lehrer's Mr. Truetemp example? What does Lehrer think it shows? Do you agree?

5. What is Lehrer's Mr. Raco example? What does Lehrer think it shows? Do you agree?

6. Questions on Steup: (a) What is a J-factor? (b) What are examples of J-factors? (c) According to Steup, are J-factors always recognizable on reflection? (d) Steup says that his account of epistemic justification is deontological, evidentialist, and internalist. What does he mean by these terms? (e) Steup discussed Alston's example of a tribe with bad doxastic habits. Explain the example. (f) In discussing this example, Steup argues that "the connection between the pursuit of truth and knowledge, and the doxastic practices conducive to that goal is transparent." What does this mean? Is it true?

7. In the second Goldman article, Goldman defends a reliabilist account of epistemic justification. Goldman gives the example of Nelson to illustrate a problem with certain accounts of a priori justification. What is the problem? How does Goldman propose to fix the problem?

8. What does Goldman mean by an unconditionally reliable belief forming process? What does he mean by a conditionally reliable belief forming process?

9. What does BonJour mean by a "cognitive thermometer"?

10. From Gilovich: (a) What is the Lake Woebegone effect? (b) What psychological mechanisms does Gilovich identify to explain why people have a tendency to believe what they want to believe?

11. (a) What are self-serving beliefs? (b) What is Talbott's Argument Against Internalism About Justification? [Hint: It depends on a claim about self-serving beliefs.] (c) How might an internalist best respond to Talbott's argument?

12. For each of the authors on the following list, state whether their epistemology is top-down or bottom-up and explain:

(a) Gettier

(b) Goldman

(c) Steup.