The Reliability of Sense Perception
E730164
The Reliability of Sense Perception is a major work in epistemology by William Alston that defends the justificatory role of perceptual experience in forming rational beliefs about the external world.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Reliability of Sense Perception canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8389363 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Reliability of Sense Perception Context triple: [William Alston, notableWork, The Reliability of Sense Perception]
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A.
Science, Perception and Reality
Science, Perception and Reality is a landmark collection of Wilfrid Sellars’s philosophical essays that critically examines empiricism, the nature of perception, and the relationship between scientific and everyday conceptions of the world.
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B.
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind is Wilfrid Sellars’s influential 1956 essay that critiques traditional empiricism and introduces the famous distinction between the “space of reasons” and the “space of causes” in theories of mind and knowledge.
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C.
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge is a 1940 philosophical work by A. J. Ayer that defends logical empiricism by critically examining sense-data theories and the justification of empirical beliefs.
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D.
Essays in Radical Empiricism
Essays in Radical Empiricism is a posthumously published collection of philosophical writings by William James that develops his influential doctrine of radical empiricism, emphasizing the primacy of experience and relations in understanding reality.
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E.
Phenomenology of Mind
Phenomenology of Mind is the English title of G. W. F. Hegel’s seminal philosophical work that traces the development of human consciousness, self-awareness, and reason toward absolute knowledge.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Reliability of Sense Perception Target entity description: The Reliability of Sense Perception is a major work in epistemology by William Alston that defends the justificatory role of perceptual experience in forming rational beliefs about the external world.
-
A.
Science, Perception and Reality
Science, Perception and Reality is a landmark collection of Wilfrid Sellars’s philosophical essays that critically examines empiricism, the nature of perception, and the relationship between scientific and everyday conceptions of the world.
-
B.
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind is Wilfrid Sellars’s influential 1956 essay that critiques traditional empiricism and introduces the famous distinction between the “space of reasons” and the “space of causes” in theories of mind and knowledge.
-
C.
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge is a 1940 philosophical work by A. J. Ayer that defends logical empiricism by critically examining sense-data theories and the justification of empirical beliefs.
-
D.
Essays in Radical Empiricism
Essays in Radical Empiricism is a posthumously published collection of philosophical writings by William James that develops his influential doctrine of radical empiricism, emphasizing the primacy of experience and relations in understanding reality.
-
E.
Phenomenology of Mind
Phenomenology of Mind is the English title of G. W. F. Hegel’s seminal philosophical work that traces the development of human consciousness, self-awareness, and reason toward absolute knowledge.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
philosophical book
ⓘ
work in epistemology ⓘ |
| addresses |
the epistemic status of perceptual practices
ⓘ
the nature of epistemic justification ⓘ the problem of the criterion ⓘ the relationship between experience and belief ⓘ |
| author |
William P. Alston
ⓘ
linked to:
William Alston
|
| concerns |
how perceptual beliefs can be rationally grounded
ⓘ
whether sense perception is a basic source of knowledge ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| critiques |
classical foundationalism
ⓘ
radical skepticism about the external world ⓘ strong internalist requirements on justification ⓘ |
| defends |
a moderate foundationalist picture of justification
ⓘ
a reliabilist account of epistemic justification ⓘ the justificatory role of perceptual experience ⓘ the rationality of relying on sense perception ⓘ |
| field |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
theory of knowledge ⓘ |
| genre | academic monograph ⓘ |
| hasInfluenced |
contemporary discussions of reliabilism
ⓘ
debates on the epistemology of perception ⓘ work on religious epistemology by William P. Alston ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
advanced students of philosophy
ⓘ
professional philosophers ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainClaim |
perceptual experience can confer justification on beliefs about the external world
ⓘ
sense perception is a generally reliable source of belief ⓘ skeptical challenges to perceptual justification can be answered ⓘ we are prima facie justified in trusting our perceptual practices ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
epistemic justification
ⓘ
epistemic practices ⓘ epistemology ⓘ external world ⓘ foundationalism ⓘ internalism and externalism in epistemology ⓘ justification of perceptual belief ⓘ perceptual experience ⓘ rational belief ⓘ reliabilism ⓘ sense perception ⓘ |
| philosophicalPositionSupported |
epistemic externalism
ⓘ
moderate foundationalism about justification ⓘ reliabilist theory of justification ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | Anglo-American analytic philosophy ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Reliability of Sense Perception Description of subject: The Reliability of Sense Perception is a major work in epistemology by William Alston that defends the justificatory role of perceptual experience in forming rational beliefs about the external world.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.