Richard Anthony Fumerton (born October 7, 1949)[2] is a Canadian American philosopher and professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa with research interests in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and value theory.
[3][10] Given this fact, Fumerton has argued that we cannot have the philosophical assurance required for knowledge about the external world.
[3][6] He has argued that whilst externalist theories of justification provide non-inferentially justified beliefs about the external world, these justifications are "philosophically unsatisfying" and cannot provide philosophical assurance for beliefs about the external world.
[6] Given these arguments, Fumerton thinks that there is no philosophically satisfying account of how we could know about the external world, a view known as "metaepistemological scepticism".
[14] Fumerton's puzzle can also occur when the conditions are not met, but an agent rationally believes that they are.