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Card 2.3.2 · Root II — Epistemology

Internalism vs Externalism

Do you have to know why you know?

This node asks whether a knower must have access to what justifies their belief, or whether justification can depend on facts they cannot see.

From The Coordinates of Thought by Syed Raheel Shahzad, card 2.3.2, page 109

On this card
  1. Where it sits
  2. The rival answers
  3. Key figures
  4. Connections
  5. On Coordinates of Thought

Where it sits

Under 2.3 Structure of justification. Borders 2.1, 2.2.4, 6.14.

The rival answers

PositionClaim
Access internalismThe justifier must be available to reflection
Mentalist internalismJustification supervenes on mental states, accessible or not
Process reliabilismWhat matters is that the belief-forming process is reliable
Proper functionalismJustification requires faculties working as designed in a suitable environment
Virtue externalismCredit to the knower's competence, whether or not they can articulate it

Key figures

FigureDatesTraditionContribution
Alvin Goldman1938–2024AnalyticProcess reliabilism
Laurence BonJourb. 1943AnalyticThe clairvoyant counterexample
Alvin Plantingab. 1932AnalyticProper function
Ernest Sosab. 1940AnalyticVirtue-theoretic middle ground

Connections

→ 2.3, 2.1 · ↔ 2.2.4, 2.1.1, 6.17 · ◇ reliabilism, access internalism, proper functionalism, virtue epistemology · ○ Modern; Table 3

→ narrower questions · ↔ questions it borders · ◇ the positions, mapped in Part III of the book · ○ the eras and comparison tables (Parts IV and V)

The full card is in the book

In The Coordinates of Thought this card goes on to a worked example that sets the answers against one case, and to where the question touches daily life — page 109.

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