Common Sense, Science and Scepticism: A Historical Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge - Softcover

Musgrave, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521436257 ISBN 13: 9780521436250

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Can we know anything for certain? There are those who think we can (traditionally labeled the "dogmatists") and those who think we cannot (traditionally labeled the "skeptics"). The theory of knowledge, or epistemology, is the great debate between the two. This book is an introductory and historically-based survey of the debate. It sides for the most part with the skeptics. It also develops out of skepticism a third view, fallibilism or critical rationalism, which incorporates an uncompromising realism about perception, science, and the nature of truth.

About this title

Book Description

Can we know anything for certain? The theory of knowledge, or epistemology, encompasses the great debate between the "dogmatists" who think we can and the "skeptics" who think we cannot. This introductory survey develops from skepticism a third view--fallibilism or critical rationalism.

Review

"The treatment of basic issues in epistemology is quite nicely done, and although the book is intended as an introduction, it is not confined to the coverage of elementary topics. Musgrave does devote a good deal of space to the discussion of such standard epistemological material as skepticism, but he also includes interesting, elegant, and informative summaries of problems and theories in logic, semantics, and the philosophy of mathematics. The book can be read profitably by anyone with an interest in epistemology and its history." Douglas M. Jesseph, Isis

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0521436257
• ISBN 13: 9780521436250
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328