The Foundations of Knowledge

by McGrew, Timothy

• ISBN13: 9780822630432
• ISBN10: 0822630435
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-11-14
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Contemporary epistemology has been moving away from classical foundationalism--the thesis that our empirical knowledge is grounded in perceptual beliefs we know with certainty. McGrew reexamines classical foundationalism and offers a compelling reconstruction and defense of empirical knowledge grounded in perceptual certainty. He articulates and defends a new version of foundationalism and demonstrates how it meets all the standard criticisms. The book offers substantial rebuttals of the arguments of Kuhn and Rorty and demonstrates the value of the classical analytic approach to philosophy. _Foundations_ will interest philosophers of science, language, and the mind.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
In Defense of Traditional Epistemology	p. 1
The Point of Departure
The Problem of Skepticism
The Traditional Concept of Justification
A Rival Account of Justification and Truth
Epistemological Commonsensism
Relativism and Epistemological Behaviorism	p. 23
Kuhn's Epistemological Relativism
Rorty's Epistemological Behaviorism
The Regress of Reasons and Classical Foundationalism	p. 45
Evidence Chains
Evidence Trees
The Pruning Requirement
Defining Classical Foundationalism
A Dilemma for Moderate Foundationalism	p. 60
Moderate Foundationalism
Skepticism and the Dilemma
Reasons, Principles, and the Basing Relation
Are Epistemic Probabilities Relational?
Is Justification a Probabilistic Notion?
Attempts to Evade the Dilemma
Epistemic Authority and Minimal Privileged Access	p. 82
Doxastic Authority
Minimal Privileged Access
From MPA to Incorrigibility
Criticisms of MPA
Incorrigibility and Internalism
Memory
Incorrigible Foundations	p. 103
Empirical Criticisms
A Priori Criticisms
The Ascent to Realism	p. 116
Causal Explanations
Objections to Explanatory Inference
Discriminating Among Rival Explanations
The Presumptive Case for Realism
The Superiority of Realism
Retrospect
Appendix I	p. 141
Appendix II	p. 144
Index	p. 147
About the Author	p. 151
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