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Epistemic buck-passing and the interpersonal view of testimony

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Judith Baker  and
Philip Clark
Judith Baker
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, York University, Toronto, Canada
Philip Clark*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Two ideas shape the epistemology of testimony. One is that testimony provides a unique kind of knowledge. The other is that testimonial knowledge is a social achievement. In traditional terms, those who affirm these ideas are anti-reductionists, and those who deny them are reductionists. There is increasing interest, however, in the possibility of affirming these ideas without embracing anti-reductionism. Thus, Sanford Goldberg uses the idea of epistemic buck-passing to argue that even reductionists can accept the uniqueness of testimonial knowledge, and Jennifer Lackey gives both speaker and hearer an essential role in testimonial justification, rejecting both reductionism and anti-reductionism in favor of what she calls dualism. After distinguishing a weaker and a stronger notion of buck-passing, we show how anti-reductionists can use the stronger notion to motivate their position, and to answer Goldberg’s and Lackey’s challenges.

Keywords

Epistemology of testimonytestimonial knowledgetrustassurancedualismreductionismanti-reductionismright to defer
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , 2018 , pp. 178 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2017

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