The Ubiquity of Higher-Order Defeat

Evidence for cognitive impairment – say, by bias or hypoxia – can defeat the epistemic permissibility of belief. This paper argues that such higher-order defeat is an instance of a more basic normative phenomenon: whenever the permissibility of one’s belief is defeated, it is defeated by an epistemic reason to withhold belief that is provided by evidence that one is fallible to some degree. This reason can do significant theoretical work in epistemology: it sets a threshold of sufficient evidence for permissible belief and breaks epistemic ties. The resulting view opens the space for reasons-based evidentialism.