Unnatural Doubts: Epistemological Realism and the Basis of Scepticism

Etukansi
Princeton University Press, 11.1.1996 - 386 sivua

In Unnatural Doubts, Michael Williams constructs a masterly polemic against the very idea of epistemology, as traditionally conceived. Although philosophers have often found problems in efforts to study the nature and limits of human knowledge, Williams provides the first book that systematically argues against there being such a thing as knowledge of the external world. He maintains that knowledge of the world consitutes a theoretically coherent kind of knowledge, whose possibility needs to be defended, only given a deeply problematic doctrine he calls "epistemological realism." The only alternative to epistemological realism is a thoroughgoing contextualism.

 

Sisältö

Pessimism in Epistemology
1
The Priority of Experience
47
Epistemological Realism
89
Examples and Paradigms
135
Scepticism and Reflection
172
Scepticism and Objectivity
225
Coherence and Truth
267
The Instability of Knowledge
317
Notes
360
Index
383
Tekijänoikeudet

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Suositut otteet

Sivu ix - This sceptical doubt, both with respect to reason and the senses, is a malady, which can never be radically cur'd, but must return upon us every moment, however we may chase it away, and sometimes may seem entirely free from it.

Tietoja kirjailijasta (1996)

Michael Williams is Morrison Professor of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He is the author of Groundless Beliefs.

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