Epistemology: The Key Thinkers

Exploring what great philosophers have written about the nature of knowledge and about how we know what we know, this is a concise and accessible introduction to the field of epistemology. Epistemology: The Key Thinkers tells the story of how epistemological thinking has developed over the centuries, through the work of the finest thinkers on the topic. Chapters by leading contemporary scholars guide readers through the ideas of key philosophers, beginning with Plato and Aristotle, through Descartes and the British empiricists, to such twentieth-century thinkers such as Wittgenstein, Quine, Goldman, and beyond. The final chapter looks to the future, highlighting some of the very latest debates that energise philosophical writing today about knowledge. Each chapter ends with a guide to further reading, encouraging students to explore the key writings for themselves, making Epistemology: The Key Thinkers a perfect guide for study, revision, and reference.

Notes on Contributors \ 1. Epistemology's Past Here and Now, Stephen Hetherington \ 2. Plato's Epistemology, Nicholas D. Smith \ 3. Aristotle on Knowledge, Robert Bolton and Alan Code \ 4. Ancient Scepticism, Gisela Striker \ 5. The Epistemology of Descartes, Desmond M. Clarke \ 6. Locke, Berkeley, Hume: Epistemology, P. J. E. Kail \ 7. Kant and Kantian Epistemology, Melissa McBay Merritt and Markos Valaris \ 8. American Pragmatism: Fallibilism and Cognitive Progress, Christopher Hookway \ 9. Wittgenstein on Knowledge, Paul Snowdon \ 10. Quine, Goldman and Two Ways of Naturalizing Epistemology, Ram Neta \ 11. In Gettier's Wake, John Turri \ 12. Epistemology's Future Here and Now, Stephen Hetherington \ Index