James Pryor, a philosopher at New York University and a member of the "Practical and Theoretical Rationality: A Comparative Study" research group at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in 2012, grapples with the elusive concept of justification in his paper, "Is There Immediate Justification?" Immediate justification, as Pryor discusses, refers to the idea that beliefs can be justified without relying on other beliefs or evidence.

Through meticulous analysis, Pryor challenges traditional frameworks of foundationalism and coherentism. Foundationalist perspective posits that there are certain basic beliefs that serve as the foundation for all other beliefs; they are considered self-evident or incorrigible. Coherentist perspective argues that the justification for a belief depends on its coherence with other beliefs within a system.

Pryor's investigation of basic beliefs involves analyzing whether and to what extent they can stand alone as sources of justification or if they rely on further evidence or beliefs.

This probing also includes an exploration of the ontological and methodological implications of foundationalist views. Ontological implications involve questions such as whether there are objective truths that can serve as foundational beliefs. Methodological implications refer to how foundationalist views influence the methods and approaches philosophers take in studying knowledge and belief, such as prioritizing identifying and defending basic beliefs as a starting point for building a coherent system of knowledge.

The full paper is available at: https://philpapers.org/rec/PRYTII