Introduction to the theory of knowledge

The authors provide a comprehensive treatment of the major questions of epistemology in an intelligible and non-partisan way, while at the same time exhibiting full knowledge of contemporary publications. Rather than offering an eclectic treatment of disparate problems, the merits of the many different types of approach to epistemology are clearly explained and judiciously assessed. Cartesian and Humean scepticism are also carefully described and distinguished, and fuller treatment than usual is given of rational belief and of Gettier’s problem. – Chapter I, Scepticism and certainty (Introduction; Descartes and Hume; The appeal to ordinary language; The grounds of uncertainty; Basic knowledge); – Chapter II, Belief (Theories of belief; Belief as mental act; Belief behavioural disposition; Belief as mental state); – Chapter III, The analysis of knowledge (Kinds of knowledge; The Platonic definition of knowledge: Is knowledge analysable ?; The truth conditions of knowing; Alternative approaches; The Gettier problem; Defeasibility and causality); – Chapter IV, Perception (The common sense view of perception; The argument from illusion; Sense data; Primary and secondary qualities; The phenomenalist alternative; The realist alternative; Sensing and perceiving); – Chapter V, Memory (The ways of remembering; The representative theory of memory; The role of imagery; The realist theory of memory; Memory, perception, and scepticism; Are perception and memory necessarily reliable ?; The concept of the past; Conclusion); – Chapter VI, A priori knowledge (Knowing without experience; Some distinctions; Theories of the A priori; Scepticism and the A priori; Critics of analyticity); – Chapter VII, Truth (Theories of truth; Correspondence as the nature of truth; The semantic theory; Redundancy theories).– Concluding remarks. – Bibliography p. 204-208. M.-M. V.