What is knowledge? How do you know what you know? Could you be a brain in a tank getting fed electrical signals? How do we know that anyone else exists? Epistemology, the study of knowledge, sets out to answer these and other questions that underpin all philosophical and scientific thought.
Examining the concepts of 'knowledge', 'belief', and 'truth', this lively book guides the reader through the differing interpretations of what knowledge is and how we get it. Must it come from the external world or can it come from rational thought? Should we trust our senses or our minds? Does truth exist in the world or is it a feature of language? Including handy text boxes that explain key philosophical ideas and written in straightforward language, Epistemology: A Beginner's Guide is the first accessible introduction to this fundamental topic in philosophy.
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction ix
1 Defining 'knowledge' 1
2 Strength of belief and evidence 10
3 Justification and Gettier problems 22
4 Internalism, externalism, and justification 36
5 Foundationalism and coherentism 62
6 A priori knowledge, analyticity, and necessity 79
7 Knowledge based on sense-experience 108
8 Scepticism 126
9 New approaches to epistemology 146
Further reading 163
Index 175
Overview
What is knowledge? How do you know what you know? Could you be a brain in a tank getting fed electrical signals? How do we know that anyone else exists? Epistemology, the study of knowledge, sets out to answer these and other questions that underpin all philosophical and scientific thought.
Examining the concepts of 'knowledge', 'belief', and 'truth', this lively book guides the reader through the differing interpretations of what knowledge is and how we get it. Must it come ...