I think it’s fair to say that the most relevant objection to valid circular arguments is that they are not very good at convincing someone who does not already accept the conclusion.
I think the most relevant objection is quodlibet. Simple circular arguments be generated for any conclusion. Since they are formally equivalent, they must have equal justifcatory (probability raising) power, which must be zero. That doesn’t quite mean they are invalid...it could mean there are valid arguments with no justificatory force.
@Seed Using something like empiricism or instrumentalism to avoid the Regress Problem works for a subset of questions only. For instance, questions about the correct interpretation of observations can’t be answered by observations. (Logical Positivism tried to make a feature of the bug, by asserting that the questions it can’t answer were never meaningful).
In a sense, there are multiple solutions to the Regress problem—but they all involve giving something up, so there are no completely satisfactory solutions.
The Desiderata of an episteme are, roughly:-
Certainty. A huge issue in early modern philosophy which has been largely abandoned in contemporary philosophy.
Completeness. Everything is either true or false, nothing is neither.
Consistency. Nothing is both true and false.
Convergence. Everyone can agree on a single truth.
Rationalists have already given up Certainty, and might well have to give up on Convergence (single truth-ism) as well, if they adopt Cohererentism. Or Completeness , if they adopt instrumentalism.
I think the most relevant objection is quodlibet. Simple circular arguments be generated for any conclusion. Since they are formally equivalent, they must have equal justifcatory (probability raising) power, which must be zero. That doesn’t quite mean they are invalid...it could mean there are valid arguments with no justificatory force.
@Seed Using something like empiricism or instrumentalism to avoid the Regress Problem works for a subset of questions only. For instance, questions about the correct interpretation of observations can’t be answered by observations. (Logical Positivism tried to make a feature of the bug, by asserting that the questions it can’t answer were never meaningful).
In a sense, there are multiple solutions to the Regress problem—but they all involve giving something up, so there are no completely satisfactory solutions.
The Desiderata of an episteme are, roughly:-
Certainty. A huge issue in early modern philosophy which has been largely abandoned in contemporary philosophy.
Completeness. Everything is either true or false, nothing is neither.
Consistency. Nothing is both true and false.
Convergence. Everyone can agree on a single truth.
Rationalists have already given up Certainty, and might well have to give up on Convergence (single truth-ism) as well, if they adopt Cohererentism. Or Completeness , if they adopt instrumentalism.