The Theory of Knowledge: Classic and Contemporary Readings - Hardcover

Pojman, Louis P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 053417826X ISBN 13: 9780534178260

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 1980

Synopsis

This is a comprehensive anthology in the field of epistemology. The 58 classical and contemporary readings in this book represent all the major problems and view-points - with coverage ranging from Plato to the internalist/externalist debate, from skepticism to the ethics of belief. To help students understand complex arguments and grasp the subtle distinctions that make this course one of the most difficult for undergraduates, this text provides instructions to each section and short abstracts outlining each reading.

About this title

Review

1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION: THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. Introduction. 1. Bertrand Russell, What Can We Know? Appearances and Reality. 2. Roderick Chisholm, The Problem of the Criterion. 2. SKEPTICISM. Introduction. 1. Rene Descartes, Meditations 1 to 4. 2. David Hume, Skepticism Regarding the Senses. 3. G. E. Moore, A Defense of Common Sense. 4. Keith Lehrer, Why Not Skepticism. 5. Norman Malcolm, Two Types of Knowledge. 3. PERCEPTION: OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD. Introduction. 1. John Locke, A Representational Theory of Perception. 2. George Berkeley, An Idealist Theory of Knowledge. 3 W. T. Stace, Science and the Physical World: A Defense of Phenomenalism. 4. H. Whiteley, Phenomenalism: Its Grounds and Difficulties. 5. Thomas Reid, A Defense of Direct Realism. 6. Bertrand Russell, A Defense of Representationalism. 4. ANALYSIS OF KNOWLEDGE. Introduction. 1. Edmund Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? 2. Richard Feldman: An Alleged Defect in Gettier Counterexamples. 3. Alvin Goldman, A Causal Theory of Knowledge. 4. Keith Lehrer and Tom Paxson, Knowledge: Undefeated Justified Belief. 5. Alvin Goldman, Discrimination and Perceptual Knowledge. 5. THEORIES OF JUSTIFICATION (I): FOUNDATIONALISM AND COHERENTISM. Introduction. 1. Robert Chisolm, Foundationalism. 2. Robert Audi, Contemporary Modest Foundationalism. 3. Laurence Bonjour, A Critique of Foundationalism. 4. Timothy McGrew, Ad Defense of Classical Foundationalism (commissioned). 5. Jonathan Dancy, A Defense of Coherentism. 6. Richard Fumerton, A Critique of Coherentism (revised-commissioned). 7. Ernest Sosa, The Raft and the Pyramid: Coherence Versus Foundations in the Theory of Knowledge. 8. Susan Haack, A Foundherentist Theory of Empirical Justification (commissioned). 9. David Annis, A Contextual Theory of Epistemic Justification. 6. THEORIES OF JUSTIFICATION (II): EXTERNALISM AND INTERNALISM. Introduction. 1. Alvin Goldman, Reliabilism: What Is Justified Belief? 2. Keith Lehrer, A Critique of Externalism. 3. W. V. Quine, Epistemology Naturalized. 4. Earl Conee and Richard Feldman, The Generality Problem for Reliabilism. 5. Matthias Steup, A Defense of Internalism (commissioned). 6. Hilary Kornblith, Naturalistic Epistemology and its Critics. 7. David Lewis, Elusive Knowledge. 8. John Greco, Foundationalism, Coherentism, and Virtue Epistemology. 7. A PRIORI KNOWEDGE. Introduction. 1. Immanel Kant, A Priori Knowledge. 2. A. J. Ayer, An Empiricist Critique of the A Priori. 3. A. C. Ewing, In Defense of A Priori Knowledge. 4. W. V. Quine, Two Dogmas of Empiricism. 5. H. P. Grice and Peter F. Strawson, In Defense of a Dogma. 6. Roderick Chisholm, Truths of Reason. 7. Saul Kripke, A Priori Knowledge, Necessity and Contingency. 8. INDUCTION. Introduction. 1. David Hume, The Problem of Induction. 2. Bertrand Russell, On Induction. 3. Frederick Will, Will the Future Be Like the Past? 4. Hans Reichenbach, The Pragmatic Justification of Induction. 5. Peter F. Strawson, Dissolving the Problem of Induction. 6. Nelson Goodman, The New Riddle of Induction. 9. SCIENCE, JUSTIFICATION AND THE DEMARCATION PROBLEM. Introduction. 1. A.J. Ayer, The Verification Method and the Elimination of Metaphysics. 2. Karl Hempel, The Scientific Method of Hypothesis Testing. 3. Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations. 4. Imre Lakatos, Science versus Pseudoscience. 5. Paul Feyerabend, Science as Myth. 10. THE ETHICS OF BELIEF. Introduction. 1. John Locke, Of Enthusiasm. 2. W. K. Clifford, The Ethics of Belief. 3. William James, The Will to Believe. 4. Jack Meiland, What Ought We to Believe? 5. Louis Pojman, Believing, Willing, and the Ethics of Belief. 11. CHALLENGES AND ALTERNATIVES TO TRADITIONAL EPISTEMOLOGY. Introduction. 1. Lorraine Code, Is the Sex of the Knower Epistemologically Significant? 2. Helen Longino, Feminist Epistemology As Local Epistemology. 3. Susan Haack, Knowledge and Propoganda: Reflections of an Old Feminist. 4. Richard Rorty, Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity. 5. Margarita Rosa Levin, A Defense of Objectivity: A Critique of Feminist Epistemology and Rortyism (commissioned). 6. Karl Popper, Knowledge without a Knowing Subject.

About the Author

Louis P. Pojman (1935-2005) was Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at the United States Military Academy and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and a Rockefeller Fellow at Hamburg University. He received his D.Phil. in Philosophy from Oxford University in 1997.His first position was at the University of Notre Dame, after which he taught at the University of Texas at Dallas. Later, at the University of Mississippi, he served for three years as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. In 1995, he became Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He most recently was Visiting Professor at Brigham Young University in Utah and Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Oxford University. Pojman won several research and teaching awards, including the Burlington Northern Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship (1988) and the Outstanding Scholar/Teacher in the Humanities at the University of Mississippi (1994). He wrote in the areas of philosophy of religion, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy and authored or edited more than 30 books and 100 articles. Louis Pojman passed away in 2005.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 053417826X
• ISBN 13: 9780534178260
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 576