When Transmission Fails

One popular answer is that these deductions are instances of transmission failure (for example, Wright 1985, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008; Davies 1998, 2000, 2003; McLaughlin 2000; and Dretske 2005).1 Roughly, to say that NMD and ZD are instances of transmission failure is to say that they cannot transmit justification from their premises to their conclusions. I argue that the above answer to the pop quiz is mistaken. My strategy, in a nutshell, is to clarify, attack, defend, and apply. In section 1, I clarify the meaning of ‘transmission’ and ‘transmission failure’ in epistemological contexts by connecting these terms with a general

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