Can Perception Halt the Regress of Justifications?

§1. The justificatory question What makes it the case that a thinker has justification for a given belief? Call this the justificatory question. I will not attempt to define “justification.” I doubt that a noncircular definition is possible. Roughly speaking, one has justification for a belief just in case one is “epistemically licensed” in forming the belief. As Pryor puts it, “you have justification to believe P iff you are in a position where it would be epistemically appropriate for you to believe P” (2005, p. 181). Thus, I use “justification” in a broad sense that encompasses all epistemic warrant. Justification in this broad sense is widely instantiated by normal adults and even young children. 1