Current Controversies in Epistemology

162 Pages·2014·0.845 MB·English

by  Ram Neta

Current Controversies in Epistemology
Epistemology is one of the oldest, yet still one of the most active, areas of
philosophical research today. There currently exist many annotated tomes of
primary sources, and a handful of single-authored introductions to the fi eld,
but there is no book that captures epistemology’s dynamic growth and lively
debates for a student audience. In this volume, eight leading philosophers
debate four topics central to recent research in epistemology:
• The A Priori: C. S. I. Jenkins and Michael Devitt
• The A Posteriori: Richard Fumerton and Nicholas Silins
• The Regress of Justifi cation: Declan Smithies and Peter D. Klein
• Skepticism: Anthony Brueckner and Ernest Sosa
Ram Neta’s introduction to the volume, descriptions of each chapter, anno-
tated bibliographies for each controversy, and supplemental guide to further
controversies in epistemology (with bibliographies) help provide clearer and
richer views of active controversies for all readers.
Ram Neta is professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina.
Current Controversies in Philosophy
I n venerable Socratic fashion, philosophy proceeds best through reasoned conversa-
tion. Current Controversies in Philosophy provides short, accessible volumes that
cast a spotlight on ongoing central philosophical conversations. In each book, pairs
of experts debate four or fi ve key issues of contemporary concern, setting the stage
for students, teachers and researchers to join the discussion. Short chapter descrip-
tions precede each chapter, and an annotated bibliography and study questions con-
clude each debate. In addition, each volume includes both a general introduction and
a supplemental guide to further controversies. Combining timely debates with useful
pedagogical aids allows the volumes to serve as clear and detailed snapshots, for all
levels of readers, of some the most exciting work happening in philosophy today.
Series Editor:
John Turri
University of Waterloo
Volumes in the Series
Published:
Current Controversies in Epistemology
Edited by Ram Neta
Current Controversies in Experimental Philosophy
Edited by Edouard Machery
Current Controversies in Philosophy of Mind
Edited by Uriah Kriegel
Forthcoming:
Current Controversies in Philosophy of Film
Katherine Thomson-Jones
Current Controversies in Metaphysics
Edited by Elizabeth Barnes
Current Controversies in Political Philosophy
Edited by Thom Brooks
Current Controversies in Virtue Ethics
Edited by Mark Alfano
Praise for the Series:
“ This series constitutes a wonderful addition to the literature. The volumes refl ect
the essentially dialectical nature of philosophy, and are edited by leading fi gures in
the fi eld. They will be an invaluable resource for students and faculty alike.”
Duncan Pritchard, The University of Edinburgh
Current Controversies
in Epistemology
Edited by
Ram Neta
“This book is dedicated to the memory of Anthony Brueckner, our dear
friend and colleague (1953–2014), whose many important contributions to
epistemology continue to challenge and teach us.”
First published 2014
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Current controversies in epistemology / edited by Ram Neta. — 1 [edition].
pages cm. — (Current controversies in philosophy)
Includes index.
1. Knowledge, Theory of. I. Neta, Ram, editor of compilation.
BD143.C87 2014
121—dc23
2013046094
ISBN: 978-0-415-51813-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-51814-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-12352-2 (ebk)
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Contents
Contributors vii
Epistemology: Current Controversies 1
Ram Neta
Part I
The A Priori: Can We Gain Justifi cation Independently
of Experience? 9
1 What Can We Know A Priori? 11
C.S.I. Jenkins
2 We Don’t Learn About the World by Examining Concepts:
A Response to Carrie Jenkins 23
M ichael Devitt
Suggestions for Further Reading 34
Part II
The A Posteriori: How Does Perception Justify Belief? 35
3 How Does Perception Justify Belief? 37
Richard Fumerton
v
vi • Contents
4 Experience Does Justify Belief 55
Nicholas Silins
Suggestions for Further Reading 70
Part III
The Regress of Justifi cation: Does Justifi cation Rest
on a Foundation? 71
5 Can Foundationalism Solve the Regress Problem? 73
D eclan Smithies
6 No Final End in Sight 95
Peter D. Klein
Suggestions for Further Reading 116
Part IV
Skepticism: Can We Know that We Are Not Completely Deceived? 117
7 Skeptical Mystery Tour 119
Anthony Brueckner
8 Can the Skeptic Be Refuted? 130
Ernest Sosa
Suggestions for Further Reading 144
Supplemental Guide to Further Controversies 145
Index 147
Contributors
Anthony Brueckner is Professor of Philosophy at University of California,
Santa Barbara. He has written extensively in epistemology and on per-
sonal identity, philosophy of language, free will, and philosophy of mind.
He is the author of E ssays on Skepticism and, with Gary Ebbs, Debating
Self-Knowledge.
Michael Devitt is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate
Center of the City University of New York. He has published a number of
books, including D esignation (1981), R ealism and Truth (1984/1991/1997),
Language and Reality (with Kim Sterelny, 1987/1999), Coming to Our Senses
(1996), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language (co-edited with
Richard Hanley, 2006), Ignorance of Language (2006), and P utting Metaphysics
First (2010). Other publications include: “The Case for Referential Descrip-
tions” (2004), “Resurrecting Biological Essentialism” (2008), “Methodology
and the Nature of Knowing How” (2011), “Whither Experimental Seman-
tics?” (2012), and “The Role of Intuitions” (2012). He is currently working
on O verlooking Conventions: The Trouble with Linguistic Pragmatism.
Richard Fumerton is the F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Iowa. His research has focused mainly in epistemology, but he
has also published books and articles on metaphysics, philosophy of mind,
philosophy of science, value theory, and philosophy of law. He is the author
of M etaphysical and Epistemological Problems of Perception (1985), R eason
and Morality: A Defense of the Egocentric Perspective (1990), Metaepistemol-
ogy and Skepticism (1996), Realism and the Correspondence Theory of Truth
(2002), Epistemology (2006), M ill (with Wendy Donner 2009), and Knowl-
edge, Thought and The Case for Dualism (2013).
vii
viii • Contributors
Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins is Canada Research Chair in Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of British Columbia and Professorial Fellow of the Northern Insti-
tute of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. Her research interests are
concentrated mostly in epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of
language, mathematics and logic. Her monograph, Grounding Concepts: An
Empirical Basis for Arithmetical Knowledge, was published in 2008. Carrie
has published in a range of journals including Noûs, Analysis, Synthese, The
Philosophical Quarterly, American Philosophical Quarterly, and British Jour-
nal for the Philosophy of Science and Philosophical Studies, and currently has
over thirty research articles in print.
Peter D. Klein is a Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His work in
epistemology can be divided into three areas: (1) the analysis of knowledge,
in particular, the Gettier Problem and related issues, (2) skepticism, and
(3) the structure of justifi catory reasons. With regard to (1), he was one
of the developers of, and still holds, the defeasibility theory of knowledge;
with regard to (2) he has argued that knowledge—when understood as
true, undefeated justifi ed belief—can rise to the level of certainty, and with
regard to (3) he is a defender of infi nitism (as illustrated in this volume).
Nicholas Silins is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College and
at Cornell University. He has also been a Research Fellow at the Research
School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, and a
Bersoff Fellow at New York University. His research has been primarily in
epistemology and the philosophy of mind, with a focus on understanding
perception and how we learn from perception. His papers have been pub-
lished in the journals M ind, Philosophical Studies, and Philosophical Per-
spectives. He also has interests in the philosophy of psychology, aesthetics,
and Asian philosophy.
Declan Smithies is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Ohio State Uni-
versity. Much of his research explores issues at the intersection between
epistemology and the philosophy of mind, and he is currently writing
a monograph on the epistemic role of consciousness. He has published
articles in The Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Perspectives, Noûs, Phi-
losophy and Phenomenological Research, and the Australasian Journal of
Philosophy. In addition, he is co-editor, with Daniel Stoljar, of Introspection
and Consciousness (2012) and A ttention: Philosophical and Psychological
Essays (2011).
Ernest Sosa is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. He has
published many articles and several books in epistemology, including A
Virtue Epistemology (2007), R efl ective Knowledge (2009), K nowing Full Well
(2011), and, with Laurence BonJour, E pistemic Justifi cation (2003).
Epistemology
Current Controversies
RAM NETA
Introduction
I f you are reading this book, then it is very likely that you are either affi liated
with an institution of tertiary education (a college or university), or that you
have had some such affi liation in the past. 1 Such institutions describe their
missions in different ways, but one thing that their various descriptions have
in common is a focus on the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge. To
the extent, then, that we care (as many of us increasingly do) to understand
and evaluate the mission of such institutions, we should be concerned to
understand what knowledge is and why it is worth acquiring or disseminating.
Epistemology is the attempt to answer such questions. And while epistemol-
ogy is much older than any current institution of tertiary education, it arose
in response to the systematic attempt to acquire and disseminate knowledge.
Early work in Greek epistemology arose in refl ecting on Meno’s question
whether virtue could be taught, or in refl ecting on Theaetetus’ dedication
to acquire knowledge. But, as so often happens in philosophy, refl ection on
these issues has led to controversy on several other, closely related issues. Four
of these controversies have been especially important in the history of episte-
mology over the past three centuries at least: the nature and extent of a priori
knowledge, the nature and extent of a posteriori justifi cation, the solution to
the problem of the regress of justifi cation, and the question of whether skep-
ticism can be refuted. The current state of these four controversies is repre-
sented in each of the four parts of this volume.
1