Epistemology: The Key Thinkers

265 Pages·2012·2.76 MB·English

by  Stephen Hetherington

Epistemology:
The Key Thinkers

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Continuum Key Thinkers
The Key Thinkers series is aimed at undergraduate students and offers
clear, concise and accessible edited guides to the key thinkers in each
of the central topics in philosophy. Each book offers a comprehensive
overview of the major thinkers who have contributed to the historical
development of a key area of philosophy, providing a survey of their
major works and the evolution of the central ideas in that area.
Key Thinkers in Philosophy available now from Continuum:
Aesthetics , edited by Alessandro Giovannelli
Ethics , edited by Tom Angier
Philosophy of Religion , edited by Jeffrey J. Jordan
Philosophy of Science, edited by James Robert Brown
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Epistemology:
The Key Thinkers
Edited by
Stephen Hetherington
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© Stephen Hetherington and Contributors, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
EISBN: 978-1-4411-1783-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Epistemology : the key thinkers / [compiled by] Stephen Hetherington.
p. cm. – (Key thinkers)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-0345-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4411-5396-8
(pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4411-1783-0 (ebook pdf: alk. paper) –
ISBN 978-1-4411-9435-0 (ebook epub: alk. paper)
1. Knowledge, Theory of – History. 2. Philosophers – Biography. I. Hetherington,
Stephen Cade. II. Title. III. Series.
BD161.E64 2012
121.09–dc23
2011031388
Typeset Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in India

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Contents
Notes on Contributors v ii
1. Epistemology’s Past Here and Now 1
Stephen Hetherington
2. Plato’s Epistemology 2 9
Nicholas D. Smith
3. Aristotle on Knowledge 50
Robert Bolton and Alan Code
4. Ancient Scepticism 72
Gisela Striker
5. The Epistemology of Descartes 90
Desmond M. Clarke
6. Locke, Berkeley, Hume: Epistemology 111
P. J. E. Kail
7. Kant and Kantian Epistemology 1 31
Melissa McBay Merritt and Markos Valaris
8. American Pragmatism: Fallibilism and
Cognitive Progress 1 53
Christopher Hookway
9. Wittgenstein on Knowledge 172
Paul Snowdon
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vi Contents
10. Quine, Goldman and Two Ways of
Naturalizing Epistemology 193
Ram Neta
1 1. In Gettier’s Wake 2 14
John Turri
12. Epistemology’s Future Here and Now 2 30
Stephen Hetherington
Index 2 41
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Notes on Contributors
Robert Bolton, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University, USA
Desmond M. Clarke, Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and Professor
(Emeritus) of Philosophy, University College, Cork, Ireland
Alan Code, Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University, USA
Stephen Hetherington, Professor of Philosophy, University of New
South Wales, Australia
Christopher Hookway, Professor of Philosophy, University of Sheffield, UK
P. J. E. Kail, University Lecturer in the History of Modern Philosophy, St
Peter’s College, University of Oxford, UK
Melissa McBay Merritt, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of New
South Wales, Australia
Ram Neta, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
Nicholas D. Smith, James F. Miller Professor of Humanities, Lewis and
Clark College, USA
Paul Snowdon, Grote Professor of Mind and Logic, University College
London, UK
Gisela Striker, Walter C. Klein Professor (Emerita) of Philosophy and of
the Classics, Harvard University, USA
John Turri, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Waterloo,
Canada
Markos Valaris, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of New South Wales,
Australia

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CHAPTER 1
EPISTEMOLOGY’S PAST HERE AND NOW
Stephen Hetherington
1. Key components
Epistemology’s history is one of . . . what? Thinkers? Yes, at least that:
hence this book’s title. And then, through those thinkers, what other
keys will unlock epistemology’s past? Should we conceive of that his-
tory as a sequence, possibly a progression, of important ideas or con-
cepts? What of pivotal theses and theories? Arguments and objections?
Might notable problems and challenges have been driving epistemology
from at least some times to other times? Must general traditions and
overarching ways of thinking also be mentioned? Possibly all of these
have mattered. But which thinkers – and which ideas, concepts, theses,
etc. – have mattered most? Who and what have been epistemology’s
most influential forces? This book will help to clarify and answer that
question.
2. Knowledge: epistemology’s subject matter?
What have those ideas, concepts, theses, and so on – the tools used by
epistemology’s key thinkers – been a bout ? What has been epistemol-
ogy’s subject matter? Has it stayed constant over the centuries? Or have
there been shifts of focus and emphasis?
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