Internalism, phenomenal conservatism, and defeat

Abstract

This paper is about internalism, phenomenal conservatism, and defeat. It has three aims. The first is to develop an argument against internalism to the effect that the correct epistemology of defeat must be externalist (Section 1). The second is to show that cases involving defeat also cause trouble for phenomenal conservatism (Sections 2 and 3). The third is to cast doubt on the idea that phenomenal conservatism might work as a specific thesis about the status of seemings of particular kinds as justifiers. In particular, I will ask whether perceptual seemings might still be justifiers and provide some reason for pessimism (Section 4).