Pathays to Knoledge Private and Public [Paperback]

How can we know? How can we attain justified belief? These traditional questions in epistemology have inspired philosophers for centuries. Now, in this exceptional work, Alvin Goldman, distinguished scholar and leader in the fields of epistemology and mind, approaches such inquiries as legitimate methods or pathways to knowledge. He examines the notion of private and public knowledge, arguing for the epistemic legitimacy of private and introspective methods of gaining knowledge, yet acknowledging the equal importance of social and public mechanisms in the quest for truth. Throughout, he addresses this opposition but proposes a rigorous framework that resolves such tensions, making this collection of papers one of the most important contributions to the theory of knowledge in recent years.

Part I. Internalism, the A Priori, and Epistemic Virtue
1. Internalism Exposed
2. A Priori Warrant and Naturalistic Epistemology
3. The Unity of the Epistemic Virtues
Part II. Intuition, Introspection, and Consciousness
4. Philosophical Theory and Intuitional Evidence (with Joel Pust)
5. Science, Publicity, and Consciousness
6. can Science Know When You're Conscious?
Part III. Social Epistemology
7. Experts: Which Ones Should You Trust?
8. Social Routes to Belief and Knowledge
9. What Is Social Epistemology? A Smorgasbord of Projects
References
Index

Alvin Goldman...has made as large a contribution (in both senses) to the theory of knowledge, in all its varieties, as any living philosopher, and to its social aspect in particular in hisKnowledge in a Social World(1999) and in part III of hisPathways to Knowledge(2002). He is the most substantial of analytic social epistemologists. --Anthony Quinton,Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology

Alvin I. Goldmanis Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Sciel³e