Reasons and Basing in Commonsense Epistemology: Evidence from Two Experiments

Turri, J. (2020). Reasons and basing in commonsense epistemology: evidence from two experiments. In P. Bondy & J. A. Carter (Eds.), Well founded belief: new essays on the basing relation, 92-113. Routledge.

I accomplish two things in this paper. I explain the motivation for including experimental research in philosophical projects on epistemic reasons and the basing relation. And I present the first experimental contributions to these projects. The results from two experiments advance our understanding of the ordinary concepts of reasons and basing and set the stage for further research on the topics. More specifically, the results support a causal theory of the basing relation, according to which reasons are causes, and a dualist theory of epistemic reasons, according to which reasons include both psychological and non-psychological items.