The Causal Revolution in Epistemology

Abstract

Abstract In Chapter 4, the author describes an important challenge to the Proof Paradigm in the 20th century, the causal paradigm. He identifies Gettier as the main catalyst for the causal revolution and traces the development of the causal paradigm in the work of Goldman, Dretske, and Nozick. The author argues that the causal revolution drew attention to an important element in epistemic rationality, which he illustrates with the example of Beauregard, the white supremacist. But he argues that causal-reliabilist theories cannot provide a complete account of epistemic justification or rationality. This motivates the author to develop his own distinctive theory of epistemic rationality. The chapter ends with an Afterword in which he illustrates the continuing influence of Hume’s epistemology in Lewis’s theory of counterfactuals.