An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology

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A good introduction that falls short in a couple of places - Rated
Found this book really helpful when revising for my philosophy finals. The only exception is the section on Nozick's truth-tracking theory, which was extremely unclear. But then, as Wittgenstein pointed out, knowledge is a family resemblance concept anyway, so attempts to construct a theory of its nature are likely to be futile...

Coherence versus foundations - Rated
This book introduces and defends the coherence theory of truth and justification as an approach to the epistemological enterprize.

The book starts out with a clear classification of central sceptical problems and the authors convictions that they should be taken seriously.

It then introduces the definition of knowledge and the associated Gettier problems as well as providing a critique of; the conditional theory, causal theory and defeasibility condition theory.

Thirdly the book provides a critique of foundationalism as a theory of justification and instead defends the coherence theory against some of it's traditional criticisms and makes an interseting case for the coherence theory justifying inductive reasoning.

I found this book quite enjoyable, the arguements are passionately given but are at the same time clear and make much reference to other philosophers (it's not just the authors own views and theories being run off) espicially Quine.

Readers are unlikely to buy some of the author's defensive arguements for the coherence theory - he seems to try and sidestep the pluralty objection rather than create a strong arguement against it - but the book is worth reading for it's scope of inquiry alone: perception, memory, induction, holism versus atomism, indeterminacy etc. All are examined with reference to the coherence theory's application to their central poblems.