The possibility of Coherentism and the stringency of ceteris paribus conditions

Abstract

In (Schupbach 2008), I put forward a "possibility result" for Bayesian Coherentism, showing that there exist plausible sets of ceteris paribus conditions that imply that coherence is truth-conducive. Against this result, Schubert (2012) argues that the specific ceteris paribus conditions I consider are "jointly inconsistent". In this article, I prove to the contrary that these conditions can consistently be enforced while allowing degrees of coherence to vary. Next, I consider a related criticism, inspired by Olsson's (2005) constraints on ceteris paribus conditions. This leads to a general discussion of the principle(s) that should guide one in choosing appropriately stringent ceteris paribus conditions.