Circularity and Stability

Author(s):  
Markus Lammenranta

William Alston argues that there is no way to show that any of our basic sources of belief is reliable without falling into epistemic circularity, i.e. relying at some point on premises that are themselves derived from the very same source. His appeal to practical rationality is an attempt to evaluate our sources of belief without relying on beliefs that are based on the sources under scrutiny and thus without just presupposing their reliability. I argue that this attempt fails and that Ernest Sosa’s appeal to the coherence theory of justification fails, too, if it is understood as an attempt to find a similar external evaluation of our sources of belief that does not just assume their reliability. I concluded that there is no alternative to taking an internal view to our own reliability and embracing epistemic circularity.

Dialogue ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-240
Author(s):  
Timothy ◽  
Lydia McGrew

RésuméDans plusieurs articles importants et dans son récent livre, The Reliability of Sense Perception, William Alston a soutenu que la résistance traditionnelle à l'endroit de l'externalisme en théorie de la connaissance repose sur une crainte injustifiée de la circularité épistémique que l'externalisme entraîne. Nous maintenons, pour notre part, qu' Alston a tort d'absoudre la circularité épistémique de toute conséquence sceptique, et que sa défense de la circularité épistémique, par l'idée d'un «self-support significatif», échoue. Nous concluons, par conséquent, que l'internalisme traditionnel, assorti d'une position ferme quant à la fiabilité des principes épistémiques, représente le seul espoir de réponse au scepticisme épistémique.


Author(s):  
V. I. Onoprienko

An expansion of information technologies in the world today is caused by progress of instrumental knowledge. It has been arisen a special technological area of knowledge engineering, which is related to practical rationality and experts’ knowledge for solving urgent problems of science and practice.


2016 ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Wagner Bandeira Andriola

RESUMOO texto proporciona reflexões sobre a formação do Pedagogo, enfatizando as limitações mais visíveis na área da avaliação educacional. A partir da análise de matrizes curriculares de cursos de graduação em Pedagogia, constatou-se que algumas das principais demandas da sociedade atual não têm sido atendidas. Propôs-se que as matrizes curriculares fossem revistas, para permitir o desenvolvimento de cinco competências básicas: a) capacidade de compreender os resultados de avaliações externas realizadas pelos municípios, pelos estados e pela federação; b) capacidade de usar os resultados das avaliações externas para aprimorar a atuação docente; c) capacidade de usar os micro-dados das avaliações externas para obter diagnósticos mais detalhados da situação da escola; d) capacidade de usar os resultados dos diagnósticos mais detalhados para planejar ações de aprimoramento da gestão escolar; e) capacidade de avaliar a execução e adequação das ações de aprimoramento da gestão escolar.Palavras chave: Formação do pedagogo, ensino superior, avaliação educacional.Limitations and challenges in the formation of pedagogue in the area of education assessment.ABSTRACTThe study provides reflections on the formation of the pedagogue, emphasizing the most visible limitations in the field of educational assessment. From the analysis of matrices of education curriculum, it found that some of the main demands of today’s society have not been addressed yet. It proposed the revision of the curricular matrices to allow the development of five skills: a) ability to understand the results of external evaluations conducted by municipalities, regions and the government; b) ability to use the results of external evaluations to improve teacher performance; c) ability to use external evaluation microdata for a more detailed diagnosis of the school situation; d) ability to use results of the most detailed diagnostics for planning actions to improve school management; e) ability to assess the implementation and adaptation of the measures to improve school management.Key words: Teacher training, higher education, educational evaluation.


Author(s):  
Michael E. Bratman

In a series of essays—in particular, his 1994 essay “Assure and Threaten”—David Gauthier develops a two-tier pragmatic theory of practical rationality and argues, within that theory, for a distinctive account of the rationality of following through with prior assurances or threats. His discussion suggests that certain kinds of temporally extended agency play a special role in one’s temporally extended life going well. I argue that a related idea about diachronic self-governance helps explain a sense in which an accepted deliberative standard can be self-reinforcing. And this gives us resources to adjust Gauthier’s theory in response to a threat of what Kieran Setiya has called a “fragmentation of practical reason.”


Author(s):  
Karl Schafer

Contemporary forms of Kantian constitutivism generally begin with a conception of agency on which the constitutive aim of agency is some form of autonomy or self-unification. This chapter argues for a re-orientation of the Kantian constitutivist project towards views that begin with a conception of rationality on which both theoretical and practical rationality aim at forms of understanding. In a slogan, then, understanding-first as opposed to autonomy-first constitutivism. Such a view gives the constitutivist new resources for explaining many classes of reasons, while also offering a new way of understanding the unity of theoretical and practical reason. The chapter concludes by arguing that the resulting view is best understood, not so much as an alternative to autonomy-first constitutivism, but as a complement to it.


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