Roderick M.Chisholm on Justification

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Synopsis Synopsis Since the problem of Gettier, the problem of justification has become the core of contemporary western epistemology. The author tries to clarify the elaboration on justification of R M.Chisholm, one of the major representives of western epistemology. On the basis of the author s clarification, we are able to grasp the core of contemporary epistemology, to understand the project of foundationism to solve the problem of justification, and what s more, we are able to get a foundation to converse with the other schools of epistemology. chapters. The author attempts to clarify the justification thought of Chisholm in three In chapter one, the author analyses justification as a concept, in order to discover the nature of justificaiton.chisholm takes justification as a normative concept, and Chisholm thinks that epistemic justificaiton object is belief, and its aim is truth. As for the generation of jsutification, Chisholm holds that justification is the action in the knower s internal mind, and the process of this action is accessible. In chapter two, the author analyses the process of jsutification from the view of genetic. When in the front of regress argument, Chisholm adopts the method of foundationism: first, he takes the propositions that have the property of self-presenting and the a priori propositions as the directly evident propositions; second, Chisholm criticizes the traditional logic, imitates Carneades s theory of perception, constitute nine evident rules as the grounds of II

indirectly evidence. Finally, the author gives the definition of justification. In chapter three, the author explains the methodology of Chisholm. The author thinks Chisholm solves the problem of justification by the ways of logical analysis and analysis of ordinary language, while conserving with the skeptics. As for the defects of the thought of Chisholm. The author thinks the methodology of Chisholmmakes his epistemology both constructive and defective. In conclusion, the author criticizes the defects of two central concept of Chisholm s epistemology that are selfpresenting and concurrence, and by the method of Chisholm s, the author suggests some own answer. Key words: R M.Chisholm; epistemology; justification III

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Contents Introduction Section one: summary and significance of the subject research Section two: the methodology and some problems of translation Section three: the introduction of topic: justificaiton and the contemporary epistemology Chapter one: the nature of justification Section one: epistemic justificaiton and ethic justification Section two: the deontological sense of justification Section three: the internalism sense of justification Chapter two:the process of justificaiton Section one: some terms of eistemic appraisal Section two: seeking basic propositions: directly evident Section three: seeking rules of evidence: indirectly evident Section four: from evident to justification Chapter three: the method of jusification Section one: particularlism Section two: logical analysis Section three: analysis of ordinary language Conclusion References Acknowledgement V

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