Abstract

An account of meta-epistemic defeaters—distinct from traditional (first-order) epistemic defeaters—is motivated and defended, drawing from case studies involving epistemic error-theory (e.g., Olson 2011, Reasons for belief; cf., Streumer 2012, J Philos 110:1–25) and epistemic relativism (e.g., MacFarlane 2005, Oxford Stud Epistemol 1:197–233; 2011; 2014, Assessment sensitivity: Relative truth and its applications). Mechanisms of traditional epistemic defeat and meta-epistemic defeat are compared and contrasted, and some new puzzles are introduced.

Highlights

  • Most contemporary discussions of epistemic defeat focus on first-order epistemic defeaters

  • The meta-epistemic status of a belief is the status it has not in virtue of the particular belief it is, but in virtue of its being the kind of attitude that it is, whereas, the epistemic status of a belief is just the epistemic status it has in virtue of the particular belief it is

  • Examples of second-order epistemic status are things like being objectively justified, being objectively known, viz., status that a given belief has in virtue of the kind of attitude it is, not in virtue of the particular belief it is

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Summary

Introduction

Most contemporary discussions of epistemic defeat focus on first-order epistemic defeaters. Examples of second-order epistemic status are things like being objectively justified, being objectively known, viz., status that a given belief has in virtue of the kind of attitude it is, not in virtue of the particular belief it is (e.g., and so not in virtue of its being formed as it was, on the basis of the reasons for which it was held, etc.). Just as we take it to be a kind of epistemic loss if (in the presence of a defeater) a given belief, p, is no longer justified or known, it is natural to suppose we’ve suffered some sort of epistemic loss if, upon acquiring some new belief q, we regard the objectivity of our justification for believing p to be imperiled or vanquished.

Error-theoretic meta-epistemic defeaters
Relativist meta-epistemic defeaters
Conclusion
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