Pathways to Knowledge: Private and Public

by Alvin I. Goldman

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198031734
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/03/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	369 KB

About the Author

Alvin I. Goldman is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. The author of Knowledge in a Social World, Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science, Epistemology and Cognition, and several other books, he has pioneered many influential ideas that have shaped the contours of contemporary epistemology.

Table of Contents

Part I. Internalism, the A Priori, and Epistemic Virtue1. Internalism Exposed2. A Priori Warrant and Naturalistic Epistemology3. The Unity of the Epistemic VirtuesPart II. Intuition, Introspection, and Consciousness4. Philosophical Theory and Intuitional Evidence (with Joel Pust)5. Science, Publicity, and Consciousness6. can Science Know When You're Conscious?Part III. Social Epistemology7. Experts: Which Ones Should You Trust? 8. Social Routes to Belief and Knowledge9. What Is Social Epistemology? A Smorgasbord of ProjectsReferencesIndex

Editorial Reviews

"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 Epistemology

From the Publisher