Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

In recent years, the Simple Explanation of immunity to error through misidentification  has become increasingly popular. According to the Simple Explanation, a judgment will be immune to error through misidentification when it is not based on any identification. After clarifying what an error through misidentification is and what immunity to such errors consists in, this paper argues that the Simple Explanation misses its target. The mistake arises from ignoring that two distinct phenomena underlie immunity to error through misidentification: on the one hand, the impossibility that a certain type of error might occur and, on the other one, some sort of epistemic assurance, on the part of the author of the judgment, against such a type of error.