Book Symposium: Appearance and Explanation (Luca Moretti & Kevin McCain)

o This is a symposium on Kevin McCain and Luca Moretti’s book Appearance & Explanation (Oxford University Press, 2021). Phenomenal conservatism (PC), arguably the currently dominant version of internalist evidentialism, can be seen as the conjunction of two theses. According to the first, appearances are a source of justification. That’s the phenomenal part of PC. According to the second, unless there is reason to doubt them, appearances should be taken at face value: as conferring justification on the beliefs that are based on them. That’s the conservative part of PC. Thus, if PC is true, a belief based on an undefeated appearance is justified. McCain and Moretti defend a fusion of PC and a view they call “explanationism.” They endorse the phenomenal part of PC but argue that the conservative part is too weak. Their aim is to strengthen PC by turning it into what they call “phenomenal explanationism.” Their core idea is that an appearance that p gives a subject S justification for believing that p if and only if the fact that p is the best explanation available to S of why S is having an appearance that p. This book symposium will feature a précis by the authors, critical pieces by Richard Fumerton, Tommaso Piazza, Matthias Steup, Xiaoxing Zhang, and replies to each of the critics by the author.