The problem of strange and fleeting processes

Abstract The reliabilist sometimes, contrary to our intuitions, has to confer justification on beliefs acquired via brain lesions or clairvoyance. This is the problem of strange and fleeting processes. Here, I attempt to find a solution to the problem. After rejecting a few attempts that seemingly lead us astray, I posit that strangeness has to do with mysterious ascriptions of propensities to produce true beliefs. Then, once we adopt a more appropriate understanding of strangeness, I argue that fleetingness becomes a non-issue. If correct, the approach taken in this article allows the reliabilist to forgo adding a necessary condition on justification that specifies a reliable belief-forming process’s circumstances, the type of world it belongs to, or its evolutionary origins.