Epistemic Value

by Haddock, Adrian; Millar, Alan; Pritchard, Duncan

• ISBN13: 9780199231188
• ISBN10: 0199231184
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Recent epistemology has reflected a growing interest in issues about the value of knowledge and the values informing epistemic appraisal. Is knowledge more valuable that merely true belief or even justified true belief? Is truth the central value informing epistemic appraisal or do other values enter the picture?Epistemic Valueis a collection of previously unpublished articles on such issues by leading philosophers in the field. It will stimulate discussion of the nature of knowledge and of directions that might be taken by the theory of knowledge. The contributors are Jason Baehr, Michael Brady, Berit Brogaard, Michael DePaul, Pascal Engel, Catherine Elgin, Alvin Goldman, John Greco, Stephen Grimm, Ward Jones, Martin Kusch, Jonathan Kvanvig, Michael Lynch, Erik Olsson, Wayne Riggs and Matthew Weiner.

Author Biography

Adrian Haddock has been a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Stirling since 2004. His current interests lie in the theory of knowledge and the philosophy of action. He recently edited (with Fiona Macpherson) Disjunctivism: Perception, Action, Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Alan Millar has taught at the University of Stirling since 1971, where he is now a Professor of Philosophy. His main current interests are in the theory of knowledge and the philosophy of mind. His book Understanding People (Oxford University Press) was published in 2004. He was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005.
Since 2007, Professor Duncan Pritchard has occupied the Chair in Epistemology at the University of Edinburgh. Before that he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stirling. He has published extensively in the theory of knowledge, including two books, Epistemic Luck (Oxford University Press, 2005) and What is this Thing Called Knowledge? (Routledge, 2006). In 2007 he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Value of Knowledge

Reliabilism and the Value of Knowledge

Is There a Value Problem?

Testimony and the Value of Knowledge

The Value of Understanding

Ugly Analyses and Value

The Goods and the Motivation of Believing

Practical Reasoning and the Concept of Knowledge

Pragmatic Encroachment and Epistemic Value

Luck, Knowledge and Control

Truth and Epistemic Appraisal

The Value of Truth and the Truth of Values

Epistemic Normativity

Curiosity and the Value of Truth

Epistemic Value Monism, or How I Learned to Stop Caring About Truth

Appendix: Symposium on Jonathan Kvanvig's The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding

Precis of The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding

The Value Problem

Is Understanding Factive?

Understanding, Knowledge and the Meno Requirement

Responses to Critics

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