Rudy Hiller, Fernando (2024) Testimony and inferential justification. THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 39 (1). pp. 5-22. ISSN 2171-679X

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Abstract

Reductionists about testimony think that testimony is never a basic source of justification. By contrast, anti-reductionists claim that, at least in some paradigmatic cases, testimony is a basic and independent source of justification. In support of their position, anti-reductionists usually claim that paradigmatic testimony-based beliefs are non-inferential in that recipients of testimony usually don’t reason their way from the fact that they were told that p to the belief that p —they simply come to believe that p. In this paper I explore in detail the idea that paradigmatic testimony-based beliefs are non-inferentially justified and conclude that it is grounded on an overly simplistic characterization of inferential relations. Then, and taking my cue from Malmgren’s (2018) proposal about the varieties of inferential relations, I defend the view that paradigmatic testimony-based beliefs are inferentially justified after all.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Rudy Hiller, Fernando rudy@filosoficas.unam.mx
Additional Information:	ISSN: 0495-4548 (print)
Keywords:	testimony, inference, reductionism, anti-reductionism, credibility, justification
Subjects:	General Issues > Reductionism/Holism General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science Specific Sciences > Sociology
Depositing User:	Unnamed user with email theoria@ehu.es
Date Deposited:	03 Aug 2024 15:32
Last Modified:	03 Aug 2024 15:32
Item ID:	23755
Journal or Publication Title:	THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
Publisher:	Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea / Universidad del País Vasco
Official URL:	https://ojs.ehu.eus/index.php/THEORIA/article/view...
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1387/theoria.25029
Subjects:	General Issues > Reductionism/Holism General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science Specific Sciences > Sociology
Date:	January 2024
Page Range:	pp. 5-22
Volume:	39
Number:	1
ISSN:	2171-679X
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23755

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