Properly Basic Beliefs

Properly Basic Beliefs

Properly Basic Beliefs are ingredients of rationality, so individually they cannot have a rational basis. This makes them belong to a set of non-inferential beliefs, and if they can be justified they would need a non-inferential justification. Each are not:

1. You are not taught by others.

2. Unwarrantable because they cannot be inferentially justified; but also there is no reason not to accept them.

3. They cannot be revised.

4. They are universally held and are uncontroversial. They can be doubted, but even those who doubt them must operate as though they accept them.

5. They can only be defended on pain of circularity.

6. Unlike basic beliefs which are fundamental to a particular worldview, pbb's are not dependant of a particularly worldview. They are applicable to all worldviews.