Epistemology

Sophisticated yet accessible and easy to read, this introduction to contemporary philosophical questions about knowledge and rationality goes "beyond" the usual bland survey of the major current views to show that there "is" argument involved. Throughout, the author provides a fair and balanced blending of the standard positions on epistemology with his own carefully reasoned positions or stances into the analysis of each concept. Epistemological Questions. The Traditional Analysis of Knowledge. Modifying the Traditional Analysis of Knowledge. Evidentialist Theories of Justification. Non-evidentialist Theories of Knowledge and Justification. Skepticism. Epistemology and Science. Relativism. For anyone interested in the philosophy of knowledge and rationality.

Many of the problems of philosophy are of such broad relevance to human concerns, and so complex in their ramifications, that they are, in one form or another, perennially present. Though in the course of time they yield in part to philosophical inquiry, they may need to be rethought by each age in the light of its broader scientific knowledge and deepened ethical and religious experience. Better solutions are found by more refined and rigorous methods. Thus, one who approaches the study of philosophy in the hope of understanding the best of what it affords will look for both fundamental issues and contemporary achievements.Written by a group of distinguished philosophers, theFoundations of Philosophy Seriesaims to exhibit some of the main problems in the various fields of philosophy as they stand at the present stage of philosophical history.While certain fields are likely to be represented in most introductory courses in philosophy, college classes differ widely in emphasis, in method of instruction, and in rate of progress. Every instructor needs freedom to change his course as his own philosophical interests, the size and make-up of his classes, and the needs of his students vary from year to year. The volumes in the Foundations of Philosophy Series--each complete in itself, but complementing the others--offer a new flexibility to the instructor, who can create his own textbook by combining several volumes as he wishes, and can choose different combinations at different times. Those volumes that are not used in an introductory 'course will be found valuable, along with other texts or collections of readings, for the more specialized upper-level courses. Tom L. Beauchamp, Editor Elizabeth Beardsley and Monroe Beardsley, Founding Editors