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epistemic closure principle

Principle of epistemic closure:

Principle that, where P and Q are propositions, if we know that P, and know that P logically entails Q, we know that Q.

Sometimes said to support skepticism, because if I know that, for example, I am holding a pen, and know that if I am holding a pen I am not merely dreaming that I am doing so, then (by the principle) I know that I am not merely dreaming this: but, it is alleged, I cannot know that I am not dreaming because even if I were, things would still appear just as they do.

Therefore, I cannot know that I am really holding a pen.

Also see the theory of relative alternatives which has been used to answer this.

Source:
J Dancy, An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (1985)

Table of Contents

    • 0.1 Related:
  • 1 Videos
  • 2 Related Products
    • 2.1 Knowing and Checking: An Epistemological Investigation (Routledge Studies in Epistemology)
    • 2.2 Interdisciplinary Works in Logic, Epistemology, Psychology and Linguistics: Dialogue, Rationality, and Formalism (Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning Book 3)

Related:

  • fallibilism
  • relevant alternatives theory
  • verifiability (or verification) principle
  • double negation principle
  • indifference principle

  • Videos

  • Related Products

     
    Knowing and Checking: An Epistemological Investigation (Routledge Studies in Epistemology)

    Knowing and Checking: An Epistemological Investigation (Routledge Studies in Epistemology)

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    Interdisciplinary Works in Logic, Epistemology, Psychology and Linguistics: Dialogue, Rationality, and Formalism (Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning Book 3)

    Interdisciplinary Works in Logic, Epistemology, Psychology and Linguistics: Dialogue, Rationality, and Formalism (Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning Book 3)

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    • English (Publication Language)
    • 381 Pages - 06/30/2014 (Publication Date) - Springer (Publisher)
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  • Last update 2020-06-17. Price and product availability may change.

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