Justified inference

In this essay, I shall propose a general conception of the kind of inference that counts as justified or rational. This conception involves a version of the idea that justified belief is “closed” under competent inference—that is, roughly, whenever one competently infers a conclusion from a set of premises each of which one justifiedly believes, this inference always puts one in a position to have a justified belief in the conclusion. Although many philosophers have advocated versions of this idea of “closure”, the idea has also been widely criticized. The conception proposed here is designed to circumvent these criticisms.