Theory of Justification - Theories of Justification

Theories of Justification

There are several different views as to what entails justification, mostly focusing on the question "How sure do we need to be that our beliefs correspond to the actual world?" Different theories of justification require different amounts and types of evidence before a belief can be considered justified. Interestingly, theories of justification generally include other aspects of epistemology, such as knowledge.

The main theories of justification include:

• Coherentism - Beliefs are justified if they cohere with other beliefs a person holds, each belief is justified if it coheres with the overall system of beliefs.
• Externalism - Outside sources of knowledge can be used to justify a belief.
• Foundationalism - Self-evident basic beliefs justify other non-basic beliefs.
• Foundherentism - A combination of foundationalism and coherentism, proposed by Susan Haack.
• Infinitism - Beliefs are justified by infinite chains of reasons.
• Internalism - The believer must be able to justify a belief through internal knowledge.

Minority viewpoints include:

• Reformed epistemology - Beliefs are warranted by proper cognitive function, proposed by Alvin Plantinga.
• Skepticism - A variety of viewpoints questioning the possibility of knowledge.
  • truth skepticism - Questions the possibility of true knowledge, but not of justified knowledge
  • epistemological skepticism - Questions the possibility of justified knowledge, but not true knowledge
• Evidentialism - Beliefs depend solely on the evidence for them