The Isolation Objection to Coherence Theories of Justification

Coherentism theory is a famous alternative theory for foundationalism in the structure of justification. The major objection to coherentism theory of justification is the isolation objection. Using an analytical approach, the present paper studies the objection which is mainly based on the fact that the theory allows for justified beliefs with no justifying relation with reality because it holds that justifying a belief is only a function of its coherence with other beliefs, while some justified beliefs can be supposed with not justifying relation with reality. Therefore, the theory requires no relation between belief and reality. Having mentioned two main responses to the objection, it proves that they are incomplete. It also analyzes the objection and proves that it results from the theory's internalism, indicating that coherentism and foundationalism have similar position about the objection. Accordingly, foundationalism is addressed by the objection as well. Finally, it tries to defend internalist theories against the objection.