Author: Brian Talbot
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197743633
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Epistemology is the philosophical study of how we should form our beliefs. It is one of the central areas of philosophical inquiry and has been so for as long as there have been philosophers. The End of Epistemology As We Know It challenges the views and methodology of almost every epistemologist, both historical and contemporary. In a call for radical reform of how epistemology is practiced and a rethinking of conventional wisdom in this area, Brian Talbot puts forward new epistemic norms that differ significantly from the norms of mainstream epistemic theories.

Author: Steven B. Cowan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350016098
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Problems in Epistemology and Metaphysics takes a pro and con approach to two central philosophical topics. Each chapter begins with a question: Can We Have Knowledge? How are Beliefs Justified? What is the mind? Contemporary philosophers with opposing viewpoints are then paired together to argue their position and raise problems with conflicting standpoints. Alongside an up-to-date introduction to a core philosophical stance, each contributor provides a critical response to their opponent and clear explanation of their view. Discussion questions are included at the end of each chapter to guide further discussion. With chapters covering core questions surrounding religious beliefs, scientific knowledge, truth, being and reality, this is a comprehensive introduction to debates lying at the heart of what we know, how we know it and the nature of the world we live in.

Author: Robert Audi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136934472
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Epistemology, or “the theory of knowledge,” is concerned with how we know what we know, what justifies us in believing what we believe, and what standards of evidence we should use in seeking truths about the world and human experience. This comprehensive introduction to the field of epistemology explains the concepts and theories central to understanding knowledge. Along with covering the traditional topics of the discipline in detail, Epistemology explores emerging areas of research. The third edition features new sections on such topics as the nature of intuition, the skeptical challenge of rational disagreement, and “the value problem” – the range of questions concerning why knowledge and justified true belief have value beyond that of merely true belief. Updated and expanded, Epistemology remains a superb introduction to one of the most fundamental fields of philosophy. Special features of the third edition of Epistemology include: a comprehensive survey of basic concepts, major theories, and emerging research in the field enhanced treatment of key topics such as contextualism, perception (including perceptual content), scientific hypotheses, self-evidence and the a priori, testimony, understanding, and virtue epistemology expanded discussion of the relation between epistemology and related fields, especially philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and ethics increased clarity and ease of understanding for an undergraduate audience an updated list of key literature and annotated bibliography.

Author: Louis P. Pojman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780534248345
Category : Knowledge, Theory of
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Compact yet more comprehensive than similar texts, WHAT CAN WE KNOW? analyzes the central topics of truth, justification ranging from skepticism to religious belief. Written in the author's friendly and conversational style without unnecessary jargon, the text makes the subject matter more accessible and inviting to students.

Author: James K. Dew Jr.
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830896597
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Epistemology, the study of knowledge, can often seem like a daunting subject. In this brief introduction, James Dew and Mark Foreman guide students through the important discipline of epistemology. By asking basic questions and using clear, jargon-free language, they provide an entry into some of the most important issues in contemporary philosophy.

Author: Aaron Zimmerman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136965335
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
How do we know right from wrong? Do we even have moral knowledge? Moral epistemology studies these and related questions about our understanding of virtue and vice. It is one of philosophy’s perennial problems, reaching back to Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Hume and Kant, and has recently been the subject of intense debate as a result of findings in developmental and social psychology. In this outstanding introduction to the subject Aaron Zimmerman covers the following key topics: What is moral epistemology? What are its methods? Including a discussion of Socrates, Gettier and contemporary theories of knowledge skepticism about moral knowledge based on the anthropological record of deep and persistent moral disagreement, including contextualism moral nihilism, including debates concerning God and morality and the relation between moral knowledge and our motives and reasons to act morally epistemic moral scepticism, intuitionism and the possibility of inferring ‘ought’ from ‘is,’ discussing the views of Locke, Hume, Kant, Ross, Audi, Thomson, Harman, Sturgeon and many others how children acquire moral concepts and become more reliable judges criticisms of those who would reduce moral knowledge to value-neutral knowledge or attempt to replace moral belief with emotion. Throughout the book Zimmerman argues that our belief in moral knowledge can survive sceptical challenges. He also draws on a rich range of examples from Plato’s Meno and Dickens’ David Copperfield to Bernard Madoff and Saddam Hussein. Including chapter summaries and annotated further reading at the end of each chapter, Moral Epistemology is essential reading for all students of ethics, epistemology and moral psychology.

Author: David Coady
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444362100
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
What can we know and what should we believe about today's world? What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues applies the concerns and techniques of epistemology to a wide variety of contemporary issues. Questions about what we can know-and what we should believe-are first addressed through an explicit consideration of the practicalities of working these issues out at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Coady calls for an 'applied turn' in epistemology, a process he likens to the applied turn that transformed the study of ethics in the early 1970s. Subjects dealt with include: Experts-how can we recognize them? And when should we trust them? Rumors-should they ever be believed? And can they, in fact, be a source of knowledge? Conspiracy theories-when, if ever, should they be believed, and can they be known to be true? The blogosphere-how does it compare with traditional media as a source of knowledge and justified belief? Timely, thought provoking, and controversial, What to Believe Now offers a wealth of insights into a branch of philosophy of growing importance-and increasing relevance-in the twenty-first century.

Author: Michael Veber
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1770486720
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know is a collection of original dialogues in epistemology, suitable for student readers but also of interest to experts. Familiar problems, theories, and arguments are explored: second-order knowledge, epistemic closure, the preface paradox, skepticism, pragmatic encroachment, the Gettier problem, and more. New ideas on each of these issues are also offered, defended, and critiqued, often in humorous and entertaining ways.

Author: Rachael Scarborough King
Publisher:
ISBN: 1350242284
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book brings together short contributions from knowledge workers in a wide variety of disciplines, both inside and outside the academy, to revisit a foundational question of the Enlightenment: what is “the last or furthest end of knowledge”? As such, this book is about why we do what we do, and how we might know when we are done. In the reorganization of knowledge that characterized the Enlightenment, disciplines were conceived as having particular “ends,” that is, purposes, as well as having end-points - points at which the projects would be complete. As we experience an ongoing shift to the “knowledge economy” of the Information Age, we ask: do we still conceptualize knowledge in this way? Does an individual discipline have both an inherent purpose and a natural endpoint ? What do an experiment on a fruit fly, a reading of a poem, and the writing of a line of code share in terms of purpose and potential? In the nineteenth century, the universities of Europe institutionalized the modern academic disciplines. Many branches of knowledge have since gone their separate ways, but recent changes in technologies and institutions, and mounting political pressure, have refocused attention on the specialized nature of knowledge. This book therefore looks both backward and forward, on the one hand historicizing concepts of the “end” and on the other projecting those concepts into the future. It realigns knowledge producers from what we now think of as widely disparate areas around a single question in order to better discern perceived distinctions as well as to reveal shared language, ideals, and aspirations. Chapters focus on areas as diverse as AI; Black Studies; Literary Studies; Political Activism; and the concept of disciplinarity itself. Bringing together essays from activists such as Ady Barkin in addition to scholars from a wide range of disciplines, these essays aim to uncover a life after disciplinarity for subjects such as English, Classical Studies, and journalism, that face immediate threats to the structure if not the substance of their contributions. The essays in this collection, then--whether reflective, historical, eulogistic, or polemical--may together chart a preliminary course towards the reorganization of knowledge production as a whole.

Author: Ernest Sosa
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400883059
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
One of the world's leading epistemologists provides a sophisticated, revisionist introduction to the subject In this concise book, one of the world's leading epistemologists provides a sophisticated, revisionist introduction to the problem of knowledge in Western philosophy. Modern and contemporary accounts of epistemology tend to focus on limited questions of knowledge and skepticism, such as how we can know the external world, other minds, the past through memory, the future through induction, or the world’s depth and structure through inference. This book steps back for a better view of the more general issues posed by the ancient Greek Pyrrhonists. Returning to and illuminating this older, broader epistemological tradition, Ernest Sosa develops an original account of the subject, giving it substance not with Cartesian theology but with science and common sense. Descartes is a part of this ancient tradition, but he goes beyond it by considering not just whether knowledge is possible at all but also how we can properly attain it. In Cartesian epistemology, Sosa finds a virtue-theoretic account, one that he extends beyond the Cartesian context. Once epistemology is viewed in this light, many of its problems can be solved or fall away. The result is an important reevaluation of epistemology that will be essential reading for students and teachers.