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 Virtue1. Internalism Exposed
2. A Priori Warrant and Naturalistic Epistemology
3. The Unity of the Epistemic Virtues
Part II. Intuition, Introspection, and Consciousness4. Philosophical Theory and Intuitional Evidence (with Joel Pust)
5. Science, Publicity, and Consciousness
6. can Science Know When You're Conscious?
Part III. Social Epistemology7. 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 his
Knowledge in a Social World(1999) and in part III of his
Pathways to Knowledge(2002). He is the most substantial of analytic social epistemologists. --Anthony Quinton,
Episteme: A Journal of Social EpistemologyAlvin I. Goldmanis Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive ScielÓg