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Contepi Topic Proposal Area: Justification Issue: Approaches to the new evil demon problem (NED) Claim: Home World Reliabilism (HWR) is a better solution to the New Evil Demon Problem than Goldmans strong and weak justification response(S/J). Argument: Goldman gave two approaches to NED 1) normal world chauvinism (NWC) and 2) S/J. HWR is a better version than NWC. HWR is able to answer all the objections against it. S/J fails to give a sufficient response to the objections against it. Therefore, HWR is a better solution than S/J. Paper Structure: I. Reliabilism a. Overview b. Objections 1. The New Evil Demon Problem 2. The problem of unknown reliability 3. The generality problem Approaches to NED a. Normal World Chauvinism b. S/J c. HWR 1. Proof why HWR is a better version of NWC Objections a. Objections against NWC as objections to HWR b. Objections against S/J c. Motivation of the objections Replies a. S/J response b. HWR response c. Insufficiency of S/J response d. Objection to HWR response e. Answer of HWR to the new objection

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Reading List: Lemos, Noah. 2007. An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gist: Lemos gives an overview on reliaiblism in Chapter 5 of this book. He discusses two approaches to NED and also gives objections to them. This helps me by acting as a secondary source, to better understand the primary texts. Brad Majors & Sarah Sawyer (2005). The Epistemological Argument for Content Externalism. Nos 39 (1):257-280. Gist: This is the article where home world reliabilism was introduced. In this article, objections against NWC and S/J are given and the idea of HWR is also motivated. This gives direct information about what HWR is and the possible objections against it. Goldman, Alvin. Epistemology and Cognition. Harvard University Press, 1986. Gist: This is the book where Goldman suggests NWC as a solution to NED. This helps me by again giving me direct access about what NWC really is.