Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction

by Goldman, Alvin I.; McGrath, Matthew

• ISBN13: 9780199981120
• ISBN10: 0199981124
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780197547632
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-12-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Epistemology has long mesmerized its practitioners with numerous puzzles. What can we know, and how can we know it? In Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction, Alvin Goldman, one of the most noted contemporary epistemologists, and Matthew McGrath, known for his work on a wide range of topics in the field, have joined forces to delve into these puzzles.

Featuring a clear and engaging writing style and intriguing examples, Epistemology surveys both traditional and emerging topics in depth, acquainting students not only with the history of the field but also its new developments and directions. The first half of the book examines core questions about the nature and structure of justification and knowledge, skepticism, and the Gettier problem, paying careful attention to reliabilism, evidentialism, contextualism, pragmatic encroachment, knowledge-first epistemology, and "dogmatism" about perceptual justification. The second half provides lively excursions into such new topics as the relevance of cognitive science to epistemology, the prospects for experimental philosophy, and the evidential status of intuitions. The authors open coverage of each topic with an introduction for beginners and then move on to analyses suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Author Biography

Alvin Goldman is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A leading epistemologist for several decades, his books include Reliabilism and Contemporary Epistemology (2012) and Pathways to Knowledge (2002).

Matthew McGrath is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has published on a range of topics in epistemology and is best known for work on pragmatic encroachment, including Knowledge in an Uncertain World (2009).

Table of Contents

PART I: JUSTIFICATION AND KNOWLEDGE: THE CORE ISSUES
1. The Structure of Justification
2. Two Debates: Evidentialism vs. Reliabilism and Internalism vs. Externalism
3. Defining Knowledge
4. Skepticism about Knowledge
PART II: JUSTIFICATION AND KNOWLEDGE: SPECIAL TOPICS
5. Contextualism, Pragmatic Encroachment, and the Knowledge Norm of Assertion
6. Perceptual Justification
PART III: NATURALISTIC EPISTEMOLOGY
7. Epistemology, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy
8. Philosophy's Intuitional Methodology and the Role of Science
PART IV: SOCIAL EPISTEMOLOGY
9. Testimony and Peer Disagreement
10. Collective and Institutional Epistemology
PART V: PROBABILISTIC EPISTEMOLOGY
11. Probabilistic Epistemology