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Explanatory Coherence and the Impossibility of Confirmation by CoherencePhilosophy of Science 88 (5): 835-848. 2021.The coherence of independent reports provides a strong reason to believe that the reports are true. This plausible claim has come under attack from recent work in Bayesian epistemology. This work shows that, under certain probabilistic conditions, coherence cannot increase the probability of the target claim. These theorems are taken to demonstrate that epistemic coherentism is untenable. To date no one has investigated how these results bear on different conceptions of coherence. I investigate …Read more
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Reason and ExplanationPalgrave Macmillan. 2014.Reason and Explanation develops a new explanationist account of epistemic justification. Poston argues that the explanatory virtues provide a plausible account of necessary and sufficient conditions for justification. The justification of a subject's belief consists in the explanatory virtue of her entire beliefs compared with other sets of beliefs she could have. Poston's argument for coherentism involves a defense of the epistemic value of background beliefs, the development of a novel fram…Read more
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Explanationist Plasticity and the Problem of the CriterionPhilosophical Papers 40 (3): 395-419. 2011.Abstract This paper develops an explanationist treatment of the problem of the criterion. Explanationism is the view that all justified reasoning is justified in virtue of the explanatory virtues: simplicity, fruitfulness, testability, scope, and conservativeness. A crucial part of the explanationist framework is achieving wide reflective equilibrium. I argue that explanationism offers a plausible solution to the problem of the criterion. Furthermore, I argue that a key feature of explanationism…Read more
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The Intrinsic Probability of Grand Explanatory TheoriesFaith and Philosophy 37 (4): 401-420. 2020.This paper articulates a way to ground a relatively high prior probability for grand explanatory theories apart from an appeal to simplicity. I explore the possibility of enumerating the space of plausible grand theories of the universe by using the explanatory properties of possible views to limit the number of plausible theories. I motivate this alternative grounding by showing that Swinburne’s appeal to simplicity is problematic along several dimensions. I then argue that there are three plau…Read more
University Of Missouri
Department Of Philosophy
Alumnus
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Philosophy of Medicine |
Areas of Interest
Formal Epistemology |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Religion |
PhilPapers Editorships
Coherentism |
Coherentism, Misc |
Epistemology of Specific Domains |