justifiability

English

Etymology

First attested in 1795; formed as justifiable +‎ -ity; compare -ability.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: jŭs'tĭfīəbĭʹlĭtĭ, IPA^(key): /ˌd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪəˈbɪlɪtɪ/

Noun

justifiability (countable and uncountable, plural justifiabilities)

1. The property of being justifiable.
   • 1795 January 27th, William Woodfall et al., The Parliamentary Regiſter; or, An Impartial Report of the Debates that occur in the Two Houſes of Parliament, in the Courſe of the Fifth Seſſion of the Seventeenth Parliament of Great Britain, called to meet at Weſtminſter, on Tueſday the 30th of December 1794, volume I (London: published by T. Chapman, number 151, Fleet-Street; 1795), page 443

     War, with reſpect to its juſtifiability, like many other matters, was that on which men would decide by their moral and religious views of the ſubject.

   • 2008 October 14, Ernest Sosa, “Boghossian’s Fear of Knowledge” (pages 399–407) in Philosophical Studies CXLI:iii (December 2008), page 403

     If (a) absolute epistemic facts could not exist without being justifiable (the justifiability constraint), and if (b) one would not be justified in upholding one’s own epistemic system when faced with an actually advocated genuine alternative, then, in my view, (c) we are not much better off if such advocates are possible but just happen not to be actual.

Derived terms

• unjustifiability