This volume represents the most comprehensive and authoritative collection of canonical readings in theory of knowledge.Concentrating on the central topics of the field, it includes many of the most important contributions made in recent decades by several outstanding authors. Topics include skepticism and the Pyrrhonian problematic, the definition of knowledge, and the structure of epistemic justification. More specific topics may be found epistemology naturalized, contextualism, relativism, externalism vs internalism, foundationalism vs coherentism, and virtue epistemology.It is ideal as a reader for all courses in epistemology.

Table of Contents

Preface. Acknowledgments. Part I: Skepticism. 1. The Problem of the External World. B. Stroud. 2. Proof of an External World. G. E. Moore. 3. Four Forms of Scepticism. G. E. Moore. 4. Certainty. G. E. Moore. 5. Skepticism, Naturalism, and Transcendental Arguments. P. F. Strawson. 6. An Argument for Skepticism. Peter Unger.Part II: Defining Knowledge. 7. Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?. Edmund Gettier. 8. A Proposed Definition of Propositional Knowledge. Peter Klein. 9. Selections from Thought. (Knowledge and Probability, Knowledge and Explanation, Evidence One Does Not Possess). Gilbert Harman. 10. Philosophical Explanations. Robert Nozick. Part III: Contemporary Foundationalism and Coherentism. 11. The Myth of the Given. Roderick M. Chisholm. 12. Does Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?. Wilfrid Sellars. 13. Epistemic Principles. Wilfrid Sellars. 14. The Raft and the Pyramid. Ernest Sosa 15. A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge. Donald Davidson. Part IV: Epistemic Justification. 16. Evidentialism: Richard Feldman and Earl Conee. 17. Skepticism and Rationality. Richard Foley. 18. Epistemic Norms. John Pollock. 19. Foundherentism. Susan Haack. Part V: The Pyrrhonian Problematic. 20. Foundationalism, Epistemic Principles, and the Cartesian Circle. James Van Cleve. 21. Can Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?. Laurence Bonjour. 22. Reflective Knowledge in the Best Circles. Ernest Sosa. Part VI: Epistemology Naturalized. 23. Epistemology Naturalized. W. V. Quine. 24. What Is Naturalized Epistemology?. Jaegwon Kim. 25. Why Reason Cannot Be Naturalized. Hilary Putnam. 26. The Old Skepticism, the New Foundationalism, and Naturalized Epistemology. Robert Audi. Part VII: Epistemic Externalism. 27. What is Justified Belief?. Alvin I. Goldman. 28. How to Think about Reliability. William P. Alston. 29. The Generality Problem for Reliabilism. Earl Conee and Richard Feldman. 30. Externalism and Epistemology Naturalized. Keith Lehrer. 31. Externalism and Skepticism. Richard Fumerton. 32. Knowledge and the Internal. John McDowell. 33. Knowledge and the Social Articulation of the Space of Reasons. Robert Brandom. Part VIII: Virtue Epistemology and Proper Cognitive Functioning. 34. Epistemic Folkways and Scientific Epistemology. Alvin I. Goldman. 35. Warrant: A First Approximation. Alvin Plantinga. 36. Virtues of the Mind. Linda Zagzebski. 37. Virtues and Vices of Virtue Epistemology. John Greco. Part IX: Epistemic Contextualism. 38. Solving the Skeptical Problem. Keith DeRose. 39. Elusive Knowledge. David Lewis. 40. Contextualist Solutions to Epistemological Problems: Skepticism, Gettier, and the Lottery. Stewart Cohen. Part X: Relativism. 41. Epistemological Realism. Michael Williams. 42. Justification, Meta-Epistemology, and Meaning. Paul Moser. 43. Reflective Equilibrium, Analytic Epistemology, and the Problem of Cognitive Diversity. Stephen Stich. Bibliography

Author Biography

Ernest Sosa has taught since 1964 at Brown University, where he is now Romeo Elton Professor of Natural Theology and Professor of Philosophy. He is the author of "Knowledge in Perspective" (1991). He is co-editor (with John Greco) of "The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology" (1999); and co-editor (with Jaegwon Kim) of "A Companion to Metaphysics" (Blackwell, 1995) and "Metaphysics: An Anthology" (Blackwell, 1998). Jaegwon Kim has taught at Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Michigan, and is now William Perry Faunce Professor of Philosophy at Brown University. He is the author of "Supervenience and the Mind" (1993) and "Philosophy of Mind" (1996), and the editor, with Ernest Sosa, of "A Companion to Metaphysics" (Blackwell, 1995) and "Metaphysics: An Anthology" (Blackwell, 1998).