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Inference without Regress

A central obstacle for an account of inference is to show how it is possible to satisfy the Taking Condition without engendering a vicious regress. This is the lesson of Carroll’s Paradox. The basic difficulty is this: whatever knowledge one employs in judging that the premises support the conclusion would seem itself to be part of what supports the conclusion, thus requiring a further piece of knowledge. I argue that inferring is a matter of understanding the relevant propositions well enough to recognize that it is impossible for premises that one accepts to be true and the conclusion to be false, so that one sees the conclusion as what must be true, thereby believing it. Nothing more is required for inference than the proper understanding of premises and conclusion.