JOURNAL OF LIAONING TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BRIDGING THE EPISTEMIC DIVIDE: A CONTEXTUALIST RECONCILIATION OF INTERNALISM AND EXTERNALISM WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION

Adenike Margaret Dada, Ayedero Taiwo Martins

Abstract

The longstanding debate between internalism and externalism in epistemology centers on the nature of epistemic justification, whether it depends solely on factors accessible to the subject’s conscious reflection or also on external conditions such as the reliability of the belief-forming process. Internalism emphasizes epistemic responsibility and rational transparency, while externalism prioritizes a belief's objective connection to truth. This dichotomy has produced a deep epistemological divide between the subjective accessibility of justification and the objective conditions for truth-conduciveness. This study proposes a contextualist reconciliation of the two positions, arguing that justification is best understood as context-sensitive rather than exclusively internal or external. The reconciliation is extended into the philosophy of education, where parallel tensions arise: should educators prioritize students’ ability to articulate reasons for their beliefs, or ensure those beliefs are formed through reliable, truth-conducive learning environments? By showing how contextualism accommodates both aims, the article offers a pluralistic, theoretically unified model of justification that informs both epistemology and educational practice. This framework enables educators to calibrate epistemic expectations according to learners’ developmental stage, stakes, and subject matter, preserving the normative rigor of internalism and the empirical strengths of externalism.

Keywords: Internalism, Externalism, Contextualism, Justification, Philosophy of Education, Epistemology