CF Dictionary · Knowledge & Epistemology
Justificationism
The view that knowledge requires justification by further claims. CF, with Popper, rejects this.
Justificationism is the family of views holding that knowledge (or rational belief) requires justification — support by further claims. Classical variants require justified true belief. Probabilistic variants require high-probability belief.
CF, with CR, rejects justificationism root and branch. The reasons:
- The regress. Justification chains either regress, loop, or stop at dogma — none acceptable.
- Induction doesn't work. Justificationism typically relies on inductive support, which has the same problem.
- Positive arguments are ineffective. As asymmetric with criticism.
- error-correction doesn't need it. Knowledge grows by finding and fixing errors, not by adding up justifications.
Variants CF rejects
- Foundationalism (justification rests on basic beliefs).
- Coherentism (justification is mutual consistency).
- Infinitism (justification is an infinite chain).
- Pragmatism-as-justification (justification is what works).
- Bayesianism (justification is high posterior probability).
The CF replacement
CF replaces "justified belief" with non-refuted IGC. Knowledge is conjectural, fallible, and evaluated by criticism — not justified.
"There are decisive logical arguments against attempts to achieve any infallibility (including partial or probabilistic infallibility)." — criticalfallibilism.com