Dr Clayton Littlejohn wins Rutgers Young Epistemologist Prize

King's Philosophy is delighted to announce that the department's very own Dr Clayton Littlejohn has been announced as winner of the prestigious Young Epistemologist Award 2015. 

In his winning paper Stop Making Sense: On a Puzzle about Rationality, Clayton introduces a puzzle about epistemic rationality - an aspect of rationality which examines why we believe what we believe. The puzzle arises when we try to understand the relationship between rationality, coherence, and evidential support. It seems that it should be rational to believe what your evidence supports. It also seems that rationality requires internal coherence. Trouble arises for any view that tries to respect these apparent platitudes. 

He discusses three ways of trying to respond to this problem and argues that one solution is uniquely best. A surprising consequence of the solution offered, is that strength of evidential support doesn't determine what's rational to believe. If that's so, it shows that it's impossible to understand rationality in purely formal terms. 

The award, run by Rutgers University, recognises outstanding achievement within the field and is awarded biennially. The paper will be published in the Philosophy and Phenomenological Research journal edited by Ernest Sosa, and will be presented to the Rutgers Epistemology Conference in May.

Congratulations Clayton!