Elgin chapter 4

Elgin’s fourth chapter was encouraging to my assessment of my own personal epistemological integrity. After our in class discussion of how our beliefs are justified I struggled to imagine a ‘responsible’ method of justification that could be reasonably accomplished by any one person. Although I acknowledge that Elgin has not let me or anyone else off the hook, I find comfort in the idea that, “Without the resources the community provides, I could neither formulate nor justify the belief in question.” (p116) The example of a number of different types of scientists working together to solve a problem without having complete understanding of eachother's disciplines demonstrated how other's understanding can be drawn upon in a tenable (?) manner. Her explanation of knowledge also applies to the previous class discussion of the title of the class. “Knowledge is supposed to be an all-or nothing affair. Either you know that p or you do not. But understanding admits of degrees” (p124) Such a statement has led me to support ‘Fog of Understanding’ or something similar that implies much less certainty than Paths to Knowledge.