CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Moul, Darrah |
|---|---|
| Title | A Genealogy of Epistemological Justification: How the Protestant Reformation and Scientific Revolution contributed to modern theories of justification |
| Summary | Using a genealogical methodology, this thesis argues that the Protestant Reformation and Scientific Revolution brought about significant changes in the way that we view the justification of knowledge today. Building on work by Peter Harrison, and looking at the views of Martin Luther, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Sprat, I illustrate some of the mindset changes which occurred during these revolutions and show how they support theories from modern epistemology. I focus on two theories of epistemological justification: process reliabilism and evidentialism. First, utilizing Harrison’s summary of how views of nature changed leading up to the mechanistic worldview which characterized the Scientific Revolution, I show how reliabilism requires this view of nature in order to operate. Second, I trace the changes in authority as the aforementioned revolutionaries challenged the power of the church and of the ancient philosophical canon, and made nature the new standard of reference instead. I argue that this provides support for our modern-day usage of evidentialism. |
| Supervisor | Crane, Tim |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/moul_darrah.pdf |
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