Contents,logic and motivation in the process of knowledge acquisition: A reply to Effier

Effler's recent criticisms of the lay-epistemic model are considered. It is argued that various attributional models indeed address various attributional goals but this is because of (and not instead of) their concern with different attributional problems. Furthermore, while some attributional models deal with causal dimensions rather than with specific causes, and/or attend to the influences of important human needs this does not satisfactorily establish the non-arbitrary character of goals featured in those models. Finally, while noncommon deducibility constitutes a principle applicable only to a multi-propositional problem rather than universally, logic, motivation and cognitive contents enter conjunctively into the process of human inference. This view is juxtaposed to the suggestion that they represent disjunctive strategies of inference on which the knower may draw in various circumstances.