ABSTRACT
Foundationalism is the doctrine that self-justified beliefs constitute the foundation of knowledge. Reid hit upon a critically important line of defense for the fallible foundation theory. According to him, some beliefs are worthy of our trust even if we have no guarantee that they are true much as an experienced guide is worthy of our trust, even though we have no guarantee that she will bring us to our destination. Candidates for the status of self-justified beliefs whose justification does not depend on independent information are frequently perceptual. The fallible foundation theorist may retreat from semantics to the claim that the self-justified beliefs are self-justified as a contingent matter of fact. These considerations might lead us to doubt the tenability of even a modest fallible foundationalism, affirming that, as a matter of contingent fact, some beliefs are justified in themselves independently of other information and belief.
