Assess Coherentism

Coherentism is all about fitting our beliefs to make a network of them; they are all linked and fit in together. E.g. I receive a postcard but there is nothing on it apart from my address and the postmark. The only person I know who will send me a postcard with nothing on is my friend Ellis but the postcard is from America and he lives in Ireland. Furthermore I know Ellis’ handwriting and it doesn’t look like this. This means that my hypothesis of Ellis sending me the postcard doesn’t cohere with the other things that I believe. Then I remember Ellis was going to visit another of my friends, Adam in America, the handwriting also looks like Adam’s. From this I form the hypothesis that Ellis got Adam to address the postcard but forgot to write anything on it. My beliefs are now coherent and I am justified in them.

 The theory is holistic, this means that we assess beliefs as a whole group/set and see how well they fit together. Coherentists also say that when applying a set of beliefs to the real world the beliefs need to be as comprehensive as possible and also need to be consistent. There cannot be contradictory beliefs in the same set.

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        In coherentism it is the beliefs in each set which are justified not the set itself and this leaves the theory exposed to objections. One objection raised is that justified coherent systems can bring about another set of efficiently coherent and justified system. E.g. fiction novels create a coherent world but they are nothing like the real world. This means that coherence can’t provide an adequate account of the justification of beliefs because there can only be one set of justified beliefs about the world and not more than one.

        Coherentists respond to this that there can only ...

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