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E pistemology [from Latin cohaerere , to adhere together, stick together] Coherentism is a theory of epistemic justification, in opposition to foundationalism . It denies the view that there is a set of self-warranting perceptual beliefs that serve as the ultimate justification for all other beliefs. Instead, it suggests that all beliefs form a network within which each has equal epistemic status. A cognitive system is a family of interrelated theses that are linked to one another by an interlacing network of connections. These connections are inferential in nature but not necessarily deductive. Justification is a matter of coherence. A belief is justified if and only if it coheres with the background system of beliefs. There are various ways of understanding the nature of coherence; and different views of what coherence is form different versions of coherentism. Since coherence is essentially an internal relation among beliefs, there is a major difficulty for coherentism to deal with, that is, how to fill the gap between justified belief and external reality. It is also difficult for this theory to accommodate perceptual knowledge. In another usage, coherentism means the view that a complete inductive logic is restricted to a principle of credal coherence. “Coherentism … views the network-inter-relatedness of factual theses as the criterial standard of their acceptability.” ... log in or subscribe to read full text