Infinitism:A Form Of Disguised Foundationalism

There are two main theories of knowledge theory to solve the infinite regress problem:foundationalism and coherentism.However,both the two theories have their own defects.In order to respond to the infinite regress problem,Peter Klein come up with the theory of infinitism,which advocates justification not relay on the basic belief,but depend on infinite reasoning chain.infinitism is a better way to avoid the arbitrary problem and circular problem which are generated by foundationalism and coherentism.Although infinitism has strong confirmability in theory,it is difficult to realize in practice.Therefore,it has been challenged by many kinds of problems,such as the problem of finite of human mind,the probleme of availability of inference,the superintellectualism problem and so on.Infinitism can not solve these problems,and may lead to the result of skepticism.Therefore,infinitism resorting to contextualism,advocates that there is not required that the cognitive subject must provide an infinite reason chain,the length of the reason chain depends on the context.In fact,Such infinitism is a form of disguised foundationalism.Because there are excessive requirements of infinitism on cognitive responsibility and knowledge norms,infinitism ignores sensitivity,sociality and attributable of contexualism,finally falls into the contradiction between infinite and context.Through analysis of various elements of contextualism,it can be found that infinitism is actually not necessary and impossible to be realized.The more rational approach should be to preserve context and abandon infinity.