John Pollock

Degrees of justification

Non-deductive arguments, and even deductive arguments that proceed from contingently true premises, confer less than perfect justification on their conclusions. The question addressed in this paper is how the degree of justification of the conclusion of an argument is determined. In this connection, I

(1) endorse the weakest link principle for the computation of argument strengths,
(2) deny the accrual of reasons, according to which two arguments for a conclusion can result in a higher degree of justification than either argument by itself, and
(3) endorse a limited version of the accrual of defeat.

An analysis of defeat-status based upon these principles is proposed.


Maastricht Argument Day: abstracts