Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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234408

Formulating reductionism about testimonial warrant and the challenge from childhood testimony

Peter J. Graham

pp. 3013-3033

Abstract

The case of very young children is a test case for the plausibility of reductionism about testimonial warrant. Reductionism requires reductive reasons, reductively justified and actively deployed for testimonial justification. Though nascent language-users enjoy warranted testimony based beliefs, they do not meet these three reductionist demands. This paper clearly formulates reductionism and the infant/child objection. Two rejoinders are discussed: an influential conceptual argument from Jennifer Lackey’s paper “Testimony and the Infant/Child Objection” and the growing empirical evidence from developmental psychology on selective trust in children. Neither Lackey’s argument nor the empirical evidence vindicate reductionism.

Publication details

Published in:

Moretti Luca, Piazza Tommaso (2018) Defeaters in current epistemology. Synthese 195 (7).

Pages: 3013-3033

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-016-1140-y

Full citation:

Graham Peter J. (2018) „Formulating reductionism about testimonial warrant and the challenge from childhood testimony“. Synthese 195 (7), 3013–3033.