The Inaugural Address
17.00
Reasons for Belief, Perception and Reflective Knowledge
Alan Millar
(Stirling)
Chaired by David Papineau (KCL)
Abstract
A conception of the relation between reasons for belief, justified belief, and knowledge is outlined on which (1) a belief is justified, in the sense of well founded, only if there is an adequate (normative) reason to believe it, (2) (normative) reasons to believe something are constituted by truths, and (3) a reason to believe something justifies one in believing it only if it is constituted by a truth or truths that one knows. It is argued that, contrary to initial appearances, perceptual justification does not pose a problem for this view. The discussion touches upon the relation between believing for reasons and reflective knowledge.
Biography
Alan Millar received his first degree from the University of Edinburgh and then a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge. He was appointed to the University of Stirling in 1971, becoming a Professor of Philosophy in 1994. He has been Professor Emeritus at Stirling since 2010. In 2005 he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Philosophical Quarterly and has served on the Executive Committee of the Aristotelian Society. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. His main areas of interest are epistemology and the philosophy of mind and language, though he has made occasional contributions to the history of ethics that deal with ideas of Joseph Butler and John Stuart Mill. His publications include Reasons and Experience (Clarendon Press, 1991), Understanding People: Normativity and Rationalizing Explanation (Oxford University Press, 2004) and The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations (Oxford University Press, 2010), co-written with Duncan Pritchard and Adrian Haddock.
further info
88th joint session
of
the aristotelian society & the mind association
11 to 13 July 2014
Faculty of Philosophy
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge, CB3 9DA
United Kingdom
The local organiser is Dr. Tim Button
Further information regarding conference arrangements and registration will be available in early 2014
future joint sessions
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2017 joint session:
TBA
7 – 9 july 2017
Further information regarding future Joint Sessions will be posted here throughout the year. Please check back later for updates.
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