Fairley, Ciara Niamh Livia Corish; (2003) The appearance of foundations. Masters thesis (M.Phil), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis aims to defend a naïve account of perceptual warrant. According to the naïve account, our perceptual experiences directly warrant our perceptual beliefs. In chapter 1, I outline the naïve view and present that view with some problems. In chapter 2, I contrast the naïve view with a traditional form of foundationalism which I call appearance foundationalism. According to this view, appearance beliefs are privileged vis-à-vis perceptual beliefs. The appearance foundationalist rejects the naïve view on the grounds that it fails to satisy the epistemological demands set out in chapter 1. In the rest of chapter 2, I explain why appearance beliefs satisfy those demands, and why perceptual beliefs are regarded as problematic. In chapter 3, I examine the idea that our perceptual beliefs cannot be directly warranted by experience because they are defeasible. I develop two responses to this problem. Given the assumptions which appearance foundationalism accepts, it is right to reject the naïve account. I conclude, however, that the case for these assumptions is weaker than the intuitive case for the naïve account.

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