The Challenge Between Epistemic Autonomy and Epistemic Authority in Modern Epistemology

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Philosophy of Religion, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

According to the prevalent account of modernity, its essence is autonomy and the rejection of all authorities, including religious authorities. This account also argues that testimony as a source of knowledge and justification differs fundamentally from authority. In other words, it argues that accepting testimony as a source of knowledge and justification does not imply accepting others' authority and does not contradict modern rationality and epistemic autonomy. This view has significant implications for religious epistemology. This article shows that the above concept of modernity is incorrect by using the statements of modern classical philosophers. Then it criticizes the distinction between testimony and authority. Any belief based on testimony is intrinsically dependent on the source's authority; thus, one cannot separate them. The article then presents two other significant criticisms of the idea of autonomy suggested by contemporary epistemologists. The conclusion is that the idea of autonomy is not justifiable and that accepting another authority under certain conditions is not in conflict with rationality, but rationality demands it.

Keywords

دکارت، رنه. 1384. تأملات در فلسفه اولی. ترجمه احمد احمدی. تهران: سمت.
سروش، عبدالکریم، و دیگران. 1388. سنت و سکولاریسم. تهران: صراط.
طباطبایی، جواد. 1396. جدال قدیم و جدید در الهیات و سیاسات. تهران: مینوی خرد.
کانت، ایمانوئل. 1370. «روشنگری چیست؟». ترجمه همایون فولادپور. کِلک 22.
Coady, C. A. G. 1992. Testimony: A Philosophical Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Congar, Yves. 1960. The Mystery of the Church. Translated by A. V. Littledale. Baltimore: Geoffrey Chapman and Helicon Press.
Descartes, Rene. 1985. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. 1. Translated by Cottingham, Stoothoff and Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Foley, Richard. 2004. Intellectual Trust in Oneself and Others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fricker, Elizabeth. 2006a. "Second-Hand Knowledge." Pp. 592-618, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. LXXIII, no. 3.
Fricker, Elizabeth. 2006b. "Testimony and Epistemic Autonomy." Pp. 225-253, in The Epistemology of Testimony, edited by Jennifer Lackey and Ernest Sosa. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Gelfert, Axel. 2006. "Kant on Testimony." British Journal for the History of Philosophy 14(4): 627-652.
Hume, David. 2007. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1978. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Translated by Victor Lyle Dowdell. Carbondale & Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.
Lackey, Jennifer. 2008. Learning from Words: Testimony as a Source of Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Locke, John. 1999. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Pennsylvania: State University Press.
Locke, John. 2003. "A Letter Concerning Toleration." Pp. 211-254, in Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, edited by Ian Shapiro. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
McMyler, Benjamin. 2011. Testimony, Trust, and Authority. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wahlberg, Mats. 2014. Revelation as Testimony: A Philosophical - Theological Study. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Zagzebski, Linda. 2012. Epistemic Authority: A Theory of Trust, Authority, and Autonomy in Belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zagzebski, Linda. 2009. On Epistemology.Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.