Infallibilism

Infallibilism, in epistemology, is the idea that propositional knowledge is incompatible with a chance of being wrong, where this is typically understood as one's evidence or justification providing one's belief with such strong grounds that it must be true and perhaps cannot be rationally doubted. Other beliefs may be rationally justified, but they do not rise to the level of knowledge unless absolutely certain given one's evidence. Infallibilism's opposite, fallibilism, is the position that a justified true belief may be considered knowledge, even if one's evidence does not guarantee its truth, or can, given one's evidence, rationally doubt it.

Fallibilism is not to be confused with skepticism, which is the belief that knowledge is unattainable for rational human beings. René Descartes, an early proponent of infallibilism argued, “my reason convinces me that I ought not the less carefully to withhold belief from what is not entirely certain and indubitable, than from what is manifestly false”[1] Infallibilism can be expressed in logic as "if I know that p, then I can't be mistaken about p".[2]

Fallibilism is endorsed by most contemporary epistemologists,[3] though many in epistemology have recently presented significant arguments against fallibilism, and for infalliblism.[4]

In religion, infallibilism is the belief that certain texts or persons are incapable of being in the wrong. The most famous example of this is probably the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, under which the Pope is considered infallible in certain matters of doctrine, when his decisions are promulgated ex cathedra. Since 1870, the Catholic Church has officially declared that its earthly head, the Pope, in certain circumstances, is so grounded in the mission of the church that he teaches "infallibly".[5] Papal infallibility also belongs to the body of bishops as a whole, when, in doctrinal unity with the pope, they solemnly teach a doctrine as true.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Descartes, Rene (1641). Meditations on First Philosophy. ISBN 978-0-415-07707-1.
  2. ↑ Lacewing, Michael (2013). "Infallibilism and the Cartesian circle" (PDF). A Level Philosophy. Retrieved Oct 11, 2015.
  3. ↑ Reed, Baron (7 June 2001). "How to Think about Fallibilism" (PDF). University of Washington Course Server. Retrieved Oct 11, 2015.
  4. ↑ For example, Mark Kaplan, "If you know you can't be wrong," in Hetherington, Stephen (2006). Epistemology Futures. Oxford University Press. pp. 180–198. ; see also Moon, Andrew (2012). "Warrant does entail truth". Synthese. 184: 287–297. doi:10.1007/s11229-010-9815-2. Retrieved Oct 11, 2015. ; Dutant, Julien (2016). "How to Be an Infallibilist". Philosophical Issues. 26: 148–171. doi:10.1111/phis.12085. ; and Benton, Matthew (2018). "Knowledge, Hope, and Fallibilism". Synthese: 1–17. doi:10.1007/s11229-018-1794-8. .
  5. ↑ Burke, Ronald (Fall 1996). "The History and Future of Papal Infallibility". Retrieved Oct 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ Brom, Robert (August 10, 2004). "Papal Infallibility". Catholic Answers. Retrieved Oct 11, 2015.


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