Warrant‐Transmission, Defeaters and Disquotation

Wright has brought to light an important feature of dialectics, and I am persuaded that there are significant arguments which can properly be accused of the subtle question-begging he describes in terms of failure of transmission of warrant.1 However, I am not convinced that the two externalist arguments he mentions are good applications (one positive and the other negative) of his insight. The problems I detect with the externalist arguments relate, rather, to dubious assumptions about disquotation. My comments accordingly fall into two sections. In the first, I raise some doubts about the applicability to the externalist arguments of Wright's idea of failure of transmission of warrant; in the second I finger unrestricted use of disquotation as an alternative culprit.