Reliabilism

Reliabilism is an epistemological theory that evaluates beliefs by the reliability of the processes that produce them. Its central claim is that reliable belief-forming processes can justify beliefs without requiring believers to access that reliability.

Process reliabilism: An epistemological theory that assesses beliefs by whether the processes producing them tend to yield true beliefs. This is the standard formulation of reliabilism’s claim about justification.
Epistemic internalism: The view that justification depends on factors accessible to a believer’s reflection. Internalists reject reliabilism’s claim that inaccessible process facts can determine justification.
Alvin Goldman: An American philosopher whose work shaped contemporary epistemology, including causal and reliabilist theories of knowledge. Goldman developed influential formulations of reliabilism in the 1970s.
Perception: The process by which sensory systems acquire and organize information about the environment. Ordinary perceptual beliefs count as justified when perception is reliable in relevant conditions.
Reliabilism and the Value of Knowledge: A 2004 essay by Duncan Pritchard examining whether reliabilism explains the distinctive value of knowledge. The essay presses whether reliable true belief captures what makes knowledge valuable.
Epistemic justification: The normative status that makes a belief rational or epistemically appropriate to hold. Reliabilism explains justification through the truth-conduciveness of belief-forming processes.
Evidentialism: The theory that a belief is justified only when it fits the believer’s evidence. Evidentialism assesses a belief by evidence rather than primarily by the process producing it.
Causal theory of knowledge: A theory that knowledge requires an appropriate causal connection between a fact and the belief about it. Goldman’s causal account preceded and helped motivate his process-reliabilist approach.
Memory: The capacity to encode, retain, and retrieve information over time. Reliabilism evaluates remembered beliefs by the reliability of the processes sustaining them.
Epistemic luck: A situation in which a belief’s truth or epistemic success depends significantly on luck. Reliabilists must explain which forms of luck reliable belief production excludes.

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