Modest Foundationalism

Modest Foundationalism according to the text “holds that basic beliefs are ordinary perceptual beliefs about the external world, that these beliefs can be justified without being immune from error, and that nonbasic beliefs can be justified if they are well supported by basic beliefs without being deducible from them” (71)

 Modest Foundationalism:

1.    1.  Allows for nondeductive connections between basic justified beliefs and nonbasic justified beliefs.

2.    2.  Avoids the result that there are too few basic justified beliefs.

3.    3.  Makes it easier to find a broad-enough foundation for our knowledge of the world.

4.    4.  Requires that basic beliefs be properly connected to experiences.

Modest Foundationalism holds that all our sensory stimuli form beliefs about the world outside of them.  These are the things that we see for example and these are regarded as justified basic beliefs.  Modest Foundationalism doesn’t however say that these justified basic beliefs can’t be infallible. They are not free from error. Modest Foundationalism says that the justified basic beliefs derived from our sensory stimuli can provide justifying reasons for additional beliefs.  So, basic beliefs are beliefs about everything around us.  

If I walk into a room and see that there are two people in it, I am justified in believing that there are only two people there according to Modest Foundtionalism because I see them.

What if there are the two people that I am seeing, but there is someone else hiding behind the door. Just because I don’t see them, doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.  How does Modest Foundationalism account for this?