Why Open-Minded People Should Endorse Dogmatism

Open-minded people should endorse dogmatism because of its explanatory power. In more careful (but less catchy) words, the purpose of this paper is to provide a reason to accept dogmatism by showing how well it addresses four issues concerning non-inferential justification. In this context, dogmatism doesn’t pick out an attitude of stubborn adherence to some doctrine; rather, it is a view about non-inferential justification,1 the sort of justification a proposition has in any way except in virtue of the justification of another belief. Its basic idea is that certain experiences suffice for prima facie2 non-inferential justification.3 In this paper, we will focus on the following version: (Radical) Dogmatism: Necessarily, if it seems to S that P, then S thereby has prima facie (non-inferential) justification for P. ....