Evidence and its limits

Book chapter

Littlejohn, Clayton. (2018). Evidence and its limits. In In McHugh, Conor, Way, Jonathan and Whiting, Daniel (Ed.). Normativity : Epistemic and practical pp. 115-136 Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198758709.003.0007
AuthorsLittlejohn, Clayton
EditorsMcHugh, Conor, Way, Jonathan and Whiting, Daniel
Abstract

On a standard way of thinking about the relationships between evidence, reasons, and epistemic justification, a subject’s evidence consists of her potential reasons for her beliefs, these reasons constitute the normative reasons that bear on whether to believe, and justification is taken to result from relations between a subject’s potential reasons for her beliefs and those beliefs. This chapter argues that this view makes a number of mistakes about the rational roles of reasons and evidence and explores some parallels between practical and theoretical reasons. Just as justified action is unobjectionable action, justified belief is unobjectionable belief. Just as you cannot object to someone deciding to do something simply on the grounds that their reasons for acting didn’t give them strong reason to act, you cannot object to someone believing something simply on the grounds that they didn’t believe for reasons that gave their beliefs strong evidential support.

Keywordsevidence; reasons; justification; norms; basis problem
Page range115-136
Year2018
Book titleNormativity : Epistemic and practical
PublisherOxford University Press
Place of publicationNew York, NY
ISBN9780198758709
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198758709.003.0007
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85050211769
Research or scholarlyResearch
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All rights reserved
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Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
OnlineMar 2018
Print2018
Publication process dates
Deposited02 Jun 2022
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