The Epistemology of Testimony PDF
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THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF TESTIMONY This page intentionally left blank The Epistemology of Testimony Editedby JENNIFER LACKEY and ERNEST SOSA CLARENDONPRESS·OXFORD 1 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork ©Theseveralcontributors2006 Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2006 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbyLaserwordsPrivateLimited,Chennai,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN0–19–927600–5 978–0–19–927600–4 ISBN0–19–927601–3(Pbk.) 978–0–19–927601–1(Pbk.) 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents ListofContributors vii Introduction 1 JenniferLackey I. TESTIMONYANDTHELEGACY OF THOMASREID 1. Testimony,Credulity,andVeracity 25 RobertAudi 2. ReidontheCreditofHumanTestimony 50 JamesVanCleve II. TESTIMONYANDITSPLACEIN EPISTEMOLOGY 3. TheEpistemicRoleofTestimony:InternalistandExternalist Perspectives 77 RichardFumerton 4. LiberalFundamentalismandItsRivals 93 PeterGraham 5. Knowledge:InstrumentalandTestimonial 116 ErnestSosa III. REDUCTIONISMANDNON-REDUCTIONISM INTHEEPISTEMOLOGYOFTESTIMONY 6. ReductionismandtheDistinctivenessofTestimonialKnowledge 127 SanfordC.Goldberg 7. TestimonyandTrustworthiness 145 KeithLehrer 8. ItTakesTwotoTango:BeyondReductionism andNon-ReductionismintheEpistemology ofTestimony 160 JenniferLackey vi Contents IV. TESTIMONYANDTHEEXTENTOF OUR DEPENDENCEONOTHERS 9. TestimonialJustificationandTransindividualReasons 193 FrederickF.Schmitt 10. TestimonyandEpistemicAutonomy 225 ElizabethFricker V. NEWAREASANDNEWDIRECTIONSIN THE EPISTEMOLOGYOFTESTIMONY 11. PathologiesofTestimony 253 C.A.J.Coady 12. GettingToldandBeingBelieved 272 RichardMoran Index 307 List of Contributors RobertAudi,ProfessorofPhilosophyandDavidE.GalloProfessorofBusinessEthics, UniversityofNotreDame C. A. J. Coady, Professorial Fellow in Applied Philosophy at the Centre for Applied PhilosophyandPublicEthics,UniversityofMelbourne Elizabeth Fricker, University Lecturer in Philosophy and Fellow, Magdalen College, OxfordUniversity RichardFumerton,F.WendellMillerProfessorofPhilosophy,UniversityofIowa SanfordC.Goldberg,AssociateProfessorofPhilosophy,UniversityofKentucky PeterGraham,AssistantProfessorofPhilosophy,UniversityofCalifornia,Riverside JenniferLackey,AssistantProfessorofPhilosophy,NorthernIllinoisUniversity KeithLehrer,RegentsProfessorofPhilosophy,Emeritus,UniversityofArizona RichardMoran,ProfessorofPhilosophy,HarvardUniversity FrederickF.Schmitt,ProfessorofPhilosophy,IndianaUniversity ErnestSosa,RomeoEltonProfessorofNaturalTheologyandProfessorofPhilosophy, BrownUniversity;DistinguishedVisitingProfessor,RutgersUniversity JamesVanCleve,ProfessorofPhilosophy,UniversityofSouthernCalifornia This page intentionally left blank Introduction JenniferLackey Our dependence on testimony is as deep as it is ubiquitous. We rely on the reports of others for our beliefs about the food we eat, the medicine we ingest, theproductswebuy,thegeographyoftheworld,discoveriesinscience,historical information, and many other areas that play crucial roles in both our practic- al and our intellectual lives. Even many of our most important beliefs about ourselves were learned at an earlier time from our parents and caretakers, such asthedateofourbirth,theidentityofourparents,ourethnicbackgrounds,and soon.Werewetorefrainfromacceptingthetestimonyofothers,ourliveswould beimpoverishedinstartlinganddebilitatingways. Despitethevitalrolethattestimonyoccupiesinourepistemiclives,traditional epistemologicaltheoriesfocusedprimarilyonothersources,suchassensepercep- tion,memory, and reason, with relatively littleattention devoted specifically to testimony.Inrecentyears, however,theepistemicsignificanceoftestimonyhas been more fully appreciated, and the current literature has benefited from the publicationofaconsiderableamountofinterestingandinnovativeworkinthis area. The Epistemology of Testimony is intended to build on and further devel- op this work by bringing together new papers by some of the central figures in thefield. Most of the papers collected for this volume discuss issues in the epistemo- logyof testimonyfroma contemporarypointof view, thoughsome offertreat- mentsthatarehistoricallygroundedintheworkofThomasReidand,toaless- er extent, David Hume (Audi and Van Cleve). Some examine the similarities that testimony bears to other kinds of knowledge (Audi, Van Cleve, Sosa, and Schmitt), while others point to new areas of inquiry in the testimony literature (Coady)andnewapproachestotheorizingabouttheseissues(Graham,Lackey, and Moran). Many of the papers address the debate between non-reductionist and reductionist theories of testimonial justification and knowledge, either dir- ectly (Goldberg, Lackey, and Lehrer) or indirectly (Fumerton, Graham, Sosa, Schmitt, Fricker, and Moran). This debate has rightly assumed a position of ForvaluableassistancewiththisIntroduction,IwouldliketothankPeteNicholsand,especially, BaronReedandErnieSosa.
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