Epistemic Relativism and Scepticism: Unwinding the Braid
This book confronts the threats of epistemic relativism and Pyrrhonian scepticism to analytic philosophy. Epistemic relativists reject absolute notions of knowledge and justification, while sceptics claim that knowledge and justification of any kind are unattainable. If either of these views is correct, then there can be no objective basis for thinking that one set of methods does a better job of delivering accurate information than any other set of methods. Philosophers have generally sought to resist these threats by responding to the argument that seems to motivate both positions: the Agrippan trilemma. Steven Bland argues that this is a mistaken strategy. He surveys the most influential responses to the Agrippan trilemma, and shows that none of them succeeds in undermining epistemic relativism. Bland also offers a new, dialectical strategy of challenging epistemic relativism by uncovering how epistemic methods depend on one another for their applications. By means of this novel analysis, the book concludes that there are principled reasons to prefer naturalistic to non-naturalistic methods, even if these reasons do little to ease the threat of scepticism.

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Epistemic Relativism and Scepticism: Unwinding the Braid
This book confronts the threats of epistemic relativism and Pyrrhonian scepticism to analytic philosophy. Epistemic relativists reject absolute notions of knowledge and justification, while sceptics claim that knowledge and justification of any kind are unattainable. If either of these views is correct, then there can be no objective basis for thinking that one set of methods does a better job of delivering accurate information than any other set of methods. Philosophers have generally sought to resist these threats by responding to the argument that seems to motivate both positions: the Agrippan trilemma. Steven Bland argues that this is a mistaken strategy. He surveys the most influential responses to the Agrippan trilemma, and shows that none of them succeeds in undermining epistemic relativism. Bland also offers a new, dialectical strategy of challenging epistemic relativism by uncovering how epistemic methods depend on one another for their applications. By means of this novel analysis, the book concludes that there are principled reasons to prefer naturalistic to non-naturalistic methods, even if these reasons do little to ease the threat of scepticism.

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Epistemic Relativism and Scepticism: Unwinding the Braid

Epistemic Relativism and Scepticism: Unwinding the Braid

by Steven Bland
Epistemic Relativism and Scepticism: Unwinding the Braid

Epistemic Relativism and Scepticism: Unwinding the Braid

by Steven Bland

Hardcover(1st ed. 2018)

$84.99 
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Overview

This book confronts the threats of epistemic relativism and Pyrrhonian scepticism to analytic philosophy. Epistemic relativists reject absolute notions of knowledge and justification, while sceptics claim that knowledge and justification of any kind are unattainable. If either of these views is correct, then there can be no objective basis for thinking that one set of methods does a better job of delivering accurate information than any other set of methods. Philosophers have generally sought to resist these threats by responding to the argument that seems to motivate both positions: the Agrippan trilemma. Steven Bland argues that this is a mistaken strategy. He surveys the most influential responses to the Agrippan trilemma, and shows that none of them succeeds in undermining epistemic relativism. Bland also offers a new, dialectical strategy of challenging epistemic relativism by uncovering how epistemic methods depend on one another for their applications. By means of this novel analysis, the book concludes that there are principled reasons to prefer naturalistic to non-naturalistic methods, even if these reasons do little to ease the threat of scepticism.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9783319946726
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Publication date: 07/22/2018
Edition description: 1st ed. 2018
Pages: 234
Product dimensions: 5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steven Bland is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Huron University College at Western University, Ontario, Canada. His work focuses on foundational issues in epistemology, the philosophy of science, and early analytic philosophy.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Principal Argument for Epistemic Relativism

Chapter 3: Epistemic Relativism in the Analytic Tradition

Chapter 4: Foundationalism and Coherentism

Chapter 5: Externalism

Chapter 6: Particularism and Methodism

Chapter 7: The Charge of Incoherence

Chapter 8: The Wittgensteinian Position

Chapter 9: A Dialectical Strategy
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