Empirical Knowledge - Hardcover

Goldman, Alan H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520062027 ISBN 13: 9780520062023

Publisher: University of California Press, 1988

Synopsis

This remarkably clear and comprehensive account of empirical knowledge will be valuable to all students of epistemology and philosophy. The author begins from an explanationist analysis of knowing—a belief counts as knowledge if, and only if, its truth enters into the best explanation for its being held. Defending common sense and scientific realism within the explanationist framework, Alan Goldman provides a new foundational approach to justification. The view that emerges is broadly empiricist, counteracting the recently dominant trend that rejects that framework entirely.

Topics treated include the Gettier problem, the nature of explanation and inductive inference, the justification of foundations for knowledge in terms of inference to the best explanation, the possibility of realist interpretations of contemporary science, reference (as it bears on recent antirealist arguments), and the relations between empirical psychology and epistemology. Professor Goldman defends the need for a foundational theory of justification and presents a version that refutes standard criticisms of that doctrine. His defense of realism takes into account contemporary advances in semantics and philosophy of science. It attempts to clarify the kinds of skeptical argument the philosopher must take seriously, without succumbing to them. While recent epistemology has tended to dismiss the traditional foundational approach, it has not provided a suitable alternative. Goldman breaks new ground by adapting that approach within his explanationist, inductive theory.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"In both conception and execution this is a fine book. . . . Goldman's treatment is fresh and invigorating."—Frederick Schmitt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"[Goldman's] theory of knowing is novel, powerful and yet fairly simple. His attack on skepticism is as persuasive and as well worked-out as any I know."—William Gregory Lycan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

About the Author

Alan H. Goldman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0520062027
• ISBN 13: 9780520062023
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 409