Download or read book Introduction to Philosophy written by Guy Axtell and published by . This book was released on 2022-01-26 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction to Philosophy: Epistemology engages first-time philosophy readers on a guided tour through the core concepts, questions, methods, arguments, and theories of epistemology-the branch of philosophy devoted to the study of knowledge. After a brief overview of the field, the book progresses systematically while placing central ideas and thinkers in historical and contemporary context. The chapters cover the analysis of knowledge, the nature of epistemic justification, rationalism vs. empiricism, skepticism, the value of knowledge, the ethics of belief, Bayesian epistemology, social epistemology, and feminist epistemologies. Along the way, instructors and students will encounter a wealth of additional resources and tools: Chapter learning outcomes Key terms Images of philosophers and related art Useful diagrams and tables Boxes containing excerpts and other supplementary material Questions for reflection Suggestions for further reading A glossary For an undergraduate survey epistemology course, Introduction to Philosophy: Epistemology is ideal when used as a main text paired with primary sources and scholarly articles. For an introductory philosophy course, select book chapters are best used in combination with chapters from other books in the Introduction to Philosophy series: https: //www1.rebus.community/#/project/4ec7ecce-d2b3-4f20-973c-6b6502e7cbb2.
Download or read book What is Epistemology written by Stephen Hetherington and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-05-29 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge. Epistemologists seek to understand knowledge’s nature and availability. What is knowledge? There are competing theories. Can we really have knowledge? Challenges abound. In this lively book, Stephen Hetherington introduces us to epistemological theorizing. He builds a theory and tests it, refines it, and challenges it again. He explores such topics as evidence, truth and belief, different kinds of knowledge, and knowledge’s value, as well as sceptical views concerning knowledge of the physical world, one’s own mind and memory, and rational limits for observation and reason. This epistemological theorizing is then applied to some of life’s most pressing issues, such as how to live and how to understand ourselves and others. What is Epistemology? is a practical and student-friendly guide to one of the most dynamic areas of philosophy. It will be the go-to introductory epistemology text.
Download or read book Epistemology written by Robert Audi and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This textbook introduces the concepts and theories central for understanding the nature of knowledge. It is aimed at students who have already done an introductory course. Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, is concerned about how we know what we do, what justifies us in believing what we do, and what standards of evidence we should use in seeking truths about the world of human experience. The author's approach draws the reader into the subfields and theories of the subject, guided by key concrete examples. Major topics covered include perception and reflection as grounds of knowledge, the nature, structure, and varieties of knowledge, and the character and scope of knowledge in the crucial realms of ethics, science and religion.
Download or read book How Do We Know written by James K. Dew Jr. and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to know something? Epistemology, the study of knowledge, can often seem like a daunting subject. And yet few topics are more basic to human life. In this primer on epistemology, now in a second edition, James Dew and Mark Foreman provide an accessible entry into one of the most important disciplines within contemporary philosophy.
Download or read book Epistemology written by Robert M. Martin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you know what you know? Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge. Without knowledge, scientific enquiry is meaningless and we can’t begin to analyse the world around us. What is knowledge? How do you know you are not dreaming? Should we trust our senses? Presuming no prior experience of philosophy, this book covers everything in the topic from scepticism and possible worlds to Kant’s transcendentalism. Clear and readable, Epistemology: A Beginner’s Guide is essential reading for students and aspiring thinkers.
Download or read book Epistemology Key Concepts in Philosophy written by Christopher Norris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2005-09-15 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key Concepts in Philosophy is a series of concise, accessible and engaging introductions to the core ideas and topics encountered in the study of philosophy. Specially written to meet the needs of students and those with little prior knowledge of the subject, these books open up a whole range of important, yet often difficult ideas. The series builds to give a solid grounding in philosophy and each book is also ideal as a companion to further study. Epistemology - inquiry into the nature, possibility and scope of human knowledge - has been at the heart of the philosophy from ancient Greek times to the present. Christopher Norris provides a lucid survey and analysis of the issues that have shaped that enterprise and continue to dominate present-day discussion. He also brings out with exceptional clarity the ways in which certain 'technical' issues in epistemology can have a decisive bearing on matters of practical concern. The text highlights continuities and contrasts between early and contemporary approaches, and between the sorts of thinking that have typified the mainstream analytic and the modern 'continental' lines of descent. Norris introduces the main topics of debate, among them arguments for and against adopting a realist position with regard to various fields of knowledge, from mathematics to the physical sciences and history. Philosophy undergraduates will find this an invaluable aid to study, one that goes beyond simple definitions and summaries to open up a new and stimulating range of ideas.
Download or read book Free Will and Epistemology written by Robert Lockie and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first in-depth study of the transcendental argument for decades, Free Will and Epistemology defends a modern version of the famous transcendental argument for free will: that we could not be justified in undermining a strong notion of free will, as a strong notion of free will is required for any such process of undermining to be itself epistemically justified. By arguing for a conception of internalism that goes back to the early days of the internalist-externalist debates, it draws on work by Richard Foley, William Alston and Alvin Plantinga to explain the importance of epistemic deontology and its role in the transcendental argument. It expands on the principle that 'ought' implies 'can' and presents a strong case for a form of self-determination. With references to cases in the neuroscientific and cognitive-psychological literature, Free Will and Epistemology provides an original contribution to work on epistemic justification and the free will debate.
Download or read book Knowledge by Agreement written by Martin Kusch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin Kusch puts forth two controversial ideas: that knowledge is a social status (like money or marriage) and that knowledge is primarily the possession of groups rather than individuals. He defends the radical implications of his views: that knowledge is political, and that it varies with communities. This bold approach to epistemology is a challenge to philosophy and the wider academic world.
Download or read book The Challenge of Epistemology written by Christina Toren and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epistemology poses particular problems for anthropologists whose task it is to understand manifold ways of being human. Through their work, anthropologists often encounter people whose ideas concerning the nature and foundations of knowledge are at odds with their own. Going right to the heart of anthropological theory and method, this volume discusses issues that have vexed practicing anthropologists for a long time. The authors are by no means in agreement with one another as to where the answers might lie. Some are primarily concerned with the clarity and theoretical utility of analytical categories across disciplines; others are more inclined to push ethnographic analysis to its limits in an effort to demonstrate what kind of sense it can make. All are aware of the much-wanted differences that good ethnography can make in explaining the human sciences and philosophy. The contributors show a continued commitment to ethnography as a profoundly radical intellectual endeavor that goes to the very roots of inquiry into what it is to be human, and, to anthropology as a comparative project that should be central to any attempt to understand who we are.
Download or read book Epistemology and Emotions written by Dr Dominique Kuenzle and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Undoubtedly, emotions sometimes thwart our epistemic endeavours. But do they also contribute to epistemic success? The thesis that emotions 'skew the epistemic landscape', as Peter Goldie puts it in this volume, has long been discussed in epistemology. Recently, however, philosophers have called for a systematic reassessment of the epistemic relevance of emotions. The resulting debate at the interface between epistemology, theory of emotions and cognitive science examines emotions in a wide range of functions. These include motivating inquiry, establishing relevance, as well as providing access to facts, beliefs and non-propositional aspects of knowledge. This volume is the first collection focusing on the claim that we cannot but account for emotions if we are to understand the processes and evaluations related to empirical knowledge. All essays are specifically written for this collection by leading researchers in this relatively new and developing field, bringing together work from backgrounds such as pragmatism and scepticism, cognitive theories of emotions and cognitive science, Cartesian epistemology and virtue epistemology.
Download or read book Formal Epistemology and Cartesian Skepticism written by Tomoji Shogenji and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops new techniques in formal epistemology and applies them to the challenge of Cartesian skepticism. It introduces two formats of epistemic evaluation that should be of interest to epistemologists and philosophers of science: the dual-component format, which evaluates a statement on the basis of its safety and informativeness, and the relative-divergence format, which evaluates a probabilistic model on the basis of its complexity and goodness of fit with data. Tomoji Shogenji shows that the former lends support to Cartesian skepticism, but the latter allows us to defeat Cartesian skepticism. Along the way, Shogenji addresses a number of related issues in epistemology and philosophy of science, including epistemic circularity, epistemic closure, and inductive skepticism.
Download or read book Epistemology the Justification of Belief written by David L. Wolfe and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Contours of Christian Philosophy series will consist of short introductory-level textbooks in the various fields of philosophy. These books will introduce readers to major problems and alternative ways of dealing with those problems. These books, however, will differ from most in that they will evaluate alternative viewpoints not only with regard to their general strength, but also with regard to their value in the construction of a Christian world and life view. Thus, the books will explore the implications of the various views for Christian theology as well as the implications that Christian convictions might have for the philosophical issues discussed. It is crucial that Christians attain a greater degree of philosophical awareness in order to improve the quality of general scholarship and evangelical theology.
Download or read book This Is Epistemology written by J. Adam Carter and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is knowledge? Why is it valuable? How much of it do we have (if any at all), and what ways of thinking are good ways to use to get more of it? These are just a few questions that are asked in epistemology, roughly, the philosophical theory of knowledge. This is Epistemology is a comprehensive introduction to the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and scope of human knowledge. Exploring both classic debates and contemporary issues in epistemology, this rigorous yet accessible textbook provides readers with the foundation necessary to start doing epistemology. Organized around 11 key subtopics, and assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, this volume exposes readers to diverse, often contentious perspectives—guiding readers through crucial debates including Hume’s problem of induction, Descartes’ engagement with radical skepticism, rationalist and empiricist evaluations of a priori justification, and many more. The authors avoid complex technical terms and jargon in favor of an easy-to-follow, informal writing style with engaging chapters designed to stimulate student interest and encourage class discussion. Throughout the text, a wealth of up-to-date references and links to online resources are provided to enable further investigation of an array of epistemological topics. A balanced and authoritative addition to the acclaimed This is Philosophy series, This is Epistemology is a perfect primary textbook for philosophy undergraduates, and a valuable resource for general readers with interest in this important branch of philosophy.
Download or read book Virtue Epistemology written by John Greco and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of articles about epistemology. They include overviews of the field, investigations of the nature of knowledge, reflections on the value of knowledge, examinations of credit and luck, and explorations of future directions for research.
Download or read book On Historicizing Epistemology written by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-09 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epistemology, as generally understood by philosophers of science, is rather remote from the history of science and from historical concerns in general. Rheinberger shows that, from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth century, a parallel, alternative discourse sought to come to terms with the rather fundamental experience of the thoroughgoing scientific changes brought on by the revolution in physics. Philosophers of science and historians of science alike contributed their share to what this essay describes as an ongoing quest to historicize epistemology. Historical epistemology, in this sense, is not so concerned with the knowing subject and its mental capacities. Rather, it envisages science as an ongoing cultural endeavor and tries to assess the conditions under which the sciences in all their diversity take shape and change over time.
Download or read book Kuhn s Evolutionary Social Epistemology written by K. Brad Wray and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) has been enduringly influential in philosophy of science, challenging many common presuppositions about the nature of science and the growth of scientific knowledge. However, philosophers have misunderstood Kuhn's view, treating him as a relativist or social constructionist. In this book, Brad Wray argues that Kuhn provides a useful framework for developing an epistemology of science that takes account of the constructive role that social factors play in scientific inquiry. He examines the core concepts of Structure and explains the main characteristics of both Kuhn's evolutionary epistemology and his social epistemology, relating Structure to Kuhn's developed view presented in his later writings. The discussion includes analyses of the Copernican revolution in astronomy and the plate tectonics revolution in geology. The book will be useful for scholars working in science studies, sociologists and historians of science as well as philosophers of science.
Download or read book Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology written by Ayn Rand and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1990-04-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today man's mind is under attack by all the leading schools of philosophy. We are told that we cannot trust our senses, that logic is arbitrary, that concepts have no basis in reality. Ayn Rand opposes that torrent of nihilism, and she provides the alternative in this eloquent presentation of the essential nature--and power--of man's conceptual faculty. She offers a startlingly original solution to the problem that brought about the collapse of modern philosophy: the problem of universals. This brilliantly argued, superbly written work, together with an essay by philosophy professor Leonard Peikoff, is vital reading for all those who seek to discover that human beings can and should live by the guidance of reason.
