Justification

Abstract

"I am grateful for the invitation to be with you at this meeting and to take part in a further discussion of justi,cation. I cherish the hope that we will be able this morning to sort out one or two key questions and see where the disagreements of recent years really lie. You may recall that John Henry Newman—who himself said some interesting things about justification—made a distinction between two di-erent types of disagreement. Sometimes, he said, we disagree about words, and sometimes we disagree about things. Sometimes, that is, our disagreements are purely verbal: we are using di-erent words, but underneath, when we explain what we mean, we are saying the same thing. Sometimes, though, we really are disagreeing about matters of substance— even though, confusingly, we may actually be using the same words. I suspect there is something of both types of disagreement going on in current debates, and it would be helpful if we could at least get some clarity there"