Epistemic Disagreement, Diversity and Relativism

Abstract

Cultural disagreements about what justifies what, what counts as knowledge, must exist against a shared background of agreement about fundamental epistemic norms. This chapter deals with argument strategies for epistemic relativism on the basis of considerations to do with non-neutrality. It focuses on to arguments for epistemic relativism which highlight how diverse starting points can lead to relativism by way of epistemic circularity. The chapter explores the forms of argument with a newer, semantic approach to epistemic relativism, wherein diversity plays a very different kind of motivating role. A related route appeals more generally to epistemic externalism, according to which it is denied that what justifies one’s belief must be accessible by reflection alone. Relativism about knowledge attributions is a young view, and its viability in the philosophy of language and its import in epistemology have largely yet to be explored.