Evidentialism and Skeptical Arguments

William Kingdon CliffordSource 
I am most familiar with William Clifford's principles of Evidentialism (since those are the only evidentialism-related materials that I have studied). Evidentialism is a theory regarding epistemic justification according to which a belief is only justified when it is based on sufficient evidence. Or, in Clifford's words, that "it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence" (The Ethics of Belief 1877).

With this in mind, it is quite obvious that evidentialism is closely related to the principles of scepticism, which argues that there is not and there cannot be any justified beliefs (keep in mind that this is a very brief summary of sceptical arguments). Evidentialism, in my opinion, can be both compatible and incompatible with the sceptics' perspectives. And the link below will direct you to an essay which precisely talks about the relationship between, and arguments for and against evidentialism and scepticism. It is written by Dylan Dodd of the University of Aberdeen.
I will not summarise the essay here as I think it is best if you read the essay itself (if you are interested, that is).

Link: http://aberdeen.academia.edu/DylanDodd/Papers/1353680/Evidentialism_and_skeptical_arguments (opens in a new window)

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