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title: The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology
author: Greco, John.
publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
isbn10 | asin: 0631202919
print isbn13: 9780631202912
ebook isbn13: 9780631227564
language: English
subject Knowledge, Theory of.
publication date: 1999
lcc: BD161.B465 1999eb
ddc: 121
subject: Knowledge, Theory of.
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The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology

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Blackwell Philosophy Guides
Written by an international assembly of distinguished philosophers, the Blackwell Philosophy Guides create a
groundbreaking student resource a complete critical survey of the central themes and issues of philosophy today.
Focusing and advancing key arguments throughout, each essay incorporates essential background material serving
to clarify the history and logic of the relevant topic. Accordingly, these volumes will be a valuable resource for a
broad range of students and readers, including professional philosophers.
The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology
Edited by John Greco and Ernest Sosa
The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory
Edited by Hugh LaFollette
The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic
Edited by Lewis Goble
The Blackwell Guide to Modern Philosophy
Edited by Steven Emmanuel

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The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology
Edited by
John Greco and Ernest Sosa

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Page iv
Copyright © Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1999
First published 1999
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Blackwell Publishers Inc.
350 Main Street
Malden, Massachusetts 02148
USA
Blackwell Publishers Ltd
108 Cowley Road
Oxford OX4 1JF
UK
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of
this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade
or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Blackwell guide to epistemology / edited by John Greco and Ernest
Sosa.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-20290-0 (hc. : alk. paper). ISBN 0-631-20291-9 (pbk.
: alk. paper)
1. Knowledge, Theory of. I. Greco, John. II. Sosa, Ernest.
BD161.B465 1999
121dc21 98-23967
CIP
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset in 10 on 13pt Galliard
by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
This book is printed on acid-free paper

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CONTENTS
Contributors vii
Preface viii
Introduction: What is Epistemology?
John Greco 1
Part I
Traditional Problems of Epistemology 33
1
Skepticism
Michael Williams 35
2
Realism, Objectivity, and Skepticism
Paul K. Moser 70
3
What is Knowledge?
Linda Zagzebski 92
4
The Dialectic of Foundationalism and Coherentism
Laurence BonJour 117
Part II
The Nature of Epistemic Evaluation 143
5
Skepticism and the Internal/External Divide
Ernest Sosa 145
6
In Defense of a Naturalized Epistemology
Hilary Kornblith 158
7
Methodological Naturalism in Epistemology
Richard Feldman 170
8
Contextualism: An Explanation and Defense
Keith DeRose 187
9
Rationality
Keith Lehrer 206
Part III
Varieties of Knowledge 221
10
Perceptual Knowledge
William Alston 223
11
The A Priori
George Bealer 243
12
Moral Knowledge and Ethical Pluralism
Robert Audi 271
13
Epistemology of Religion
Nicholas Wolterstorff 303

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Part IV
New Directions 325
14
Feminist Epistemology
Helen E. Longino 327
15
Social Epistemology
Frederick Schmitt 354
16
Procedural Epistemology At the Interface of Philosophy and AI
John L. Pollock 383
17
Hermeneutics as Epistemology
Merold Westphal 415
Select Bibliography of Epistemology by Topic 436
Index 451

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CONTRIBUTORS
William Alston, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Syracuse University
Robert Audi, Professor of Philosophy, University of Nebraska
George Bealer, Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado
Laurence BonJour, Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington
Keith DeRose, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
Richard Feldman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Rochester
John Greco, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University
Hilary Kornblith, Professor of Philosophy, University of Vermont
Keith Lehrer, Regents Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona
Helen Longino, Professor of Philosophy and Woman's Studies, University of Minnesota
Paul Moser, Professor and Chairperson of Philosophy, Loyola University of Chicago
John Pollock, Professor of Philosophy and Research Professor of Cognitive Science, University of Arizona
Frederick Schmitt, Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ernest Sosa, Romeo Elton Professor of Natural Theology and Professor of Philosophy, Brown University, and
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Rutgers University
Merold Westphal, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University
Michael Williams, Morrison Professor of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University
Linda Zagzebski, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University

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Page viii
PREFACE
This volume is part of a new series of Blackwell Philosophy Guides. It contains seventeen essays on central topics
in epistemology, each by a leading author in the relevant topic area. The volume intends to be a valuable resource
for both epistemologists and non-experts alike, including students, academics in other fields, and the educated
public.
Each essay in the volume includes background material of an introductory nature. Such material will serve to
introduce non-experts to the relevant topic, as well as clarify the history and logic of the topic for those who are
already scholars in the field. The bulk of each essay, however, is devoted to arguments for the author's own views.
In this respect each essay is an important contribution to ongoing scholarship.
Of course there is always a tension between the goals of important scholarship and accessibility. We have tried to
address that tension in three ways. First, my introduction is specifically devoted to making the volume more
accessible to non-experts. To this end I offer a general introduction to the main questions of epistemology, and I
describe the central theses and arguments of each essay. Second, contributors have written their essays with non-
experts in mind. In particular, they have emphasized giving context to questions and problematics, and motivations
for answers. Finally, and most importantly, we have solicited contributors who continue to demonstrate that
excellent scholarship is compatible with accessibility. The essays in this volume are in fact models in this respect.
A few words are in order regarding the way we have handled references. All essays contain full references in their
notes. In addition to the references for individual essays, we have included a select bibliography by topic at the end
of the volume. Contributors were responsible for the section of the bibliography that deals with their respective
topic. There is inevitable overlap by doing things this way, but we thought that this option would be the most
useful to readers. Finally, I have included a number of editor's notes referring readers to other essays in the
volume. I have not done this every time an author discusses a topic that is

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