Epistemology Questions: Foundationalism and Coherentism

Question #1

Foundationalism is an aspect of epistemology that is concerned with the philosophy of how we think, patterns of thought and how we finally arrive at knowledge. It tries to answer regress in justifying an argument.

Question#2

Coherentism is a theory of epistemic justification. It implies that to justify a belief, and it must be part of a coherent system of ideas – this is by having non-explanatory, explanatory and logical consistency relations.

Question#3

Descartes’ skepticism is a method of doubt whose strategy is defeating skepticism on its ground. It’s about doubting the truth of everything beginning with evidence to the fundamental reasoning process itself (BonJour 26). Whereas skepticism that leads to foundationalism is where perceptions and perpetual beliefs become part of foundations relevant in justifying what someone is believing.

Question#4

Descartes is classified by most people as a foundationalist due to his view on knowledge regarding doubt by distinguishing vigorous knowledge from lesser grades of conviction. His method of doubt aims at complementing foundationalism.

Question#5

Foundationalists assume that there is a set of beliefs that do not need justification since they are true influenced Descartes skepticism.

Question#6

Regarding the advantages, foundationalism helps to figure out the process of how knowledge is gained through beliefs and doubts. Conversely, the presence of weak foundationalism is where justification of some non-inferential beliefs is not strong enough to satisfy the condition of knowledge of justification since it cannot allow individual beliefs act as premises to justify other beliefs(BonJour 29).Additionally, a belief may not be a proper stopping point for reasons regress if the subject is not aware it possesses foundationalism.

Question#7

As an advantage, coherentism comes up with a linear structure of argument which is ideal in coming up with assumptions used in grounding system linear to rational knowledge. On the other hand, not all beliefs in the coherent system of ideas can be useful in making assumptions. Some might be misleading or unnecessary.

 

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