Belief, Truth and Knowledge
Belief, Truth and Knowledge

Author: D. M. Armstrong

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1973-02-08

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9780521087063

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A wide-ranging study of the central concepts in epistemology - belief, truth and knowledge. Professor Armstrong offers a dispositional account of general beliefs and of knowledge of general propositions. Belief about particular matters of fact are described as structures in the mind of the believer which represent or 'map' reality, while general beliefs are dispositions to extend the 'map' or introduce casual relations between portions of the map according to general rules. 'Knowledge' denotes the reliability of such beliefs as representations of reality. Within this framework Professor Armstrong offers a distinctive account of many of the main questions in general epistemology - the relations between beliefs and language, the notions of proposition, concept and idea, the analysis of truth, the varieties of knowledge, and the way in which beleifs and knowledge are supported by reasons. The book as a whole if offered as a contribution to a naturalistic account of man.

An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge
An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge

Author: Noah Lemos

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-02-15

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780521842136

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Epistemology or the theory of knowledge is one of the cornerstones of analytic philosophy, and this book provides a clear and accessible introduction to the subject. It discusses some of the main theories of justification, including foundationalism, coherentism, reliabilism, and virtue epistemology. Other topics include the Gettier problem, internalism and externalism, skepticism, the problem of epistemic circularity, the problem of the criterion, a priori knowledge, and naturalized epistemology. Intended primarily for students taking a first class in epistemology, this lucid and well-written text would also provide an excellent introduction for anyone interested in knowing more about this important area of philosophy.

Tracking Truth
Tracking Truth

Author: Sherrilyn Roush

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005-11-10

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0199274738

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Tracking Truth presents a unified treatment of knowledge, evidence, and epistemological realism and anti-realism about scientific theories. A wide range of knowledge-related phenomena, especially but not only in science, strongly favour the idea of tracking as the key to what makes something knowledge. A subject who tracks the truth - an idea first formulated by Robert Nozick - has the ability to follow the truth through time and changing circumstances. Epistemologistsrightly concluded that Nozick's theory was not viable, but a simple revision of that view is not only viable but superior to other current views. In this new tracking account of knowledge, in contrast to the old view, knowledge has the property of closure under known implication, and troublesome counterfactualsare replaced with well-defined conditional probability statements. Of particular interest are the new view's treatment of skepticism, reflective knowledge, lottery propositions, knowledge of logical truth, and the question why knowledge is power in the Baconian sense.Ideally, evidence indicates a hypothesis and discriminates it from other possible hypotheses. This is the idea behind a tracking view of evidence, and Sherrilyn Roush provides a defence of a confirmation theory based on the Likelihood Ratio. The accounts of knowledge and evidence she offers provide a deep and seamless explanation of why having better evidence makes one more likely to have knowledge. Roush approaches the question of epistemological realism about scientific theories through thequestion what is required for evidence, and rejects both traditional realist and traditional anti-realist positions in favour of a new position which evaluates realist claims in a piecemeal fashion according to a general standard of evidence. The results show that while anti-realists were immodest indeclaring a priori what science could not do, realists were excessively sanguine about how far our actual evidence has so far taken us.

Expression and Truth
Expression and Truth

Author: Lawrence Kramer

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2012-09-23

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0520953843

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Expression and truth are traditional opposites in Western thought: expression supposedly refers to states of mind, truth to states of affairs. Expression and Truth rejects this opposition and proposes fluid new models of expression, truth, and knowledge with broad application to the humanities. These models derive from five theses that connect expression to description, cognition, the presence and absence of speech, and the conjunction of address and reply. The theses are linked by a concentration on musical expression, regarded as the ideal case of expression in general, and by fresh readings of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s scattered but important remarks about music. The result is a new conception of expression as a primary means of knowing, acting on, and forming the world. "Recent years have seen the return of the claim that music’s power resides in its ineffability. In Expression and Truth, Lawrence Kramer presents his most elaborate response to this claim. Drawing on philosophers such as Wittgenstein and on close analyses of nineteenth-century compositions, Kramer demonstrates how music operates as a medium for articulating cultural meanings and that music matters too profoundly to be cordoned off from the kinds of critical readings typically brought to the other arts. A tour-de-force by one of musicology’s most influential thinkers."—Susan McClary, Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music.

Truth, Knowledge and Causation
Truth, Knowledge and Causation

Author: C. J. Ducasse

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-05-22

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1317440412

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Originally published in 1969. This book examines the fundamental concepts of metaphysics and of theory of knowledge. Topics treated include the nature of substance and of causation; their relation to natural laws, dispositions, and attributes; the nature of consciousness and purposiveness; of symbols, signs, and signals, and their relation to interpretation and objective reference; and the nature and criteria of truth. The author holds that philosophy is by intent a science and that its becoming so requires precise and non-arbitrary semantical analysis of basic philosophical terms. He argues that philosophy then, like the other sciences, has practical importance: in its case this consists in its capacity to give to difficult practical decisions not only the efficacy insured by its application of the findings of the other sciences, but in addition some of the wisdom which is philosophy’s distinctive ultimate aim.

Truth and Knowledge
Truth and Knowledge

Author: Rudolf Steiner

Publisher: Steiner Books

Published: 1981-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780893452124

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This work, essentially Rudolf Steiner's doctoral dissertation, subtitled "Introduction to the Philosophy of Freedom," is just that--an essential work in the foundations of spiritual science. In it, the epistemological foundations of spiritual knowledge are clearly and logically presented. Originally published with The Philosophy of Freedom in a single volume, this work is fundamental to an understanding of that work (currently published as Intuitive Thinking As a Spiritual Path) and to a more complete comprehension of the philosophical basis of Steiner's spiritual science. CONTENTS: Preliminary Remarks Kant's Basic Epistemological Question Epistemology since Kant The Starting Point of Epistemology Cognition and Reality Epistemology Free of Assumptions and Fichte's Science of Knowedge Epistemological Conclusion Practical Conclusion This book is essential reading for all serious students of Anthroposophy.

Knowledge, Truth, and Duty
Knowledge, Truth, and Duty

Author: Matthias Steup

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2001-03-01

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 019802956X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume gathers eleven new and three previously unpublished essays that take on questions of epistemic justification, responsibility, and virtue. It contains the best recent work in this area by major figures such as Ernest Sosa, Robert Audi, Alvin Goldman, and Susan Haak.

The Ultimate Truth, Knowledge & Wisdom
The Ultimate Truth, Knowledge & Wisdom

Author: Sanjay Goel

Publisher: Notion Press

Published:

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 9352065875

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"What is the purpose of life? Do worldly success, material comforts, health and wealth ensure happiness and peace? What are good and bad Karmas? What causes all that happens to us in this life... our karma or fate? Is there a state called death? Is there rebirth after death? Is everything preordained, or are we responsible for our doings? How can we achieve ultimate peace and bliss? These are some of the questions that we keep asking ourselves all the time... Drawing from the wisdom of ancient Vedic philosophy and personal experience, the answers to these and many more such oft repeated questions are touched upon, going on to cover the gist of the Vedantas and the supremacy of Karma Yoga, interspersed with practical tips for modern day life, such as the qualities of a good leader, who is an ideal Guru, the effects of philosophy on health, benefits of meditation, etc… "

Donald Davidson
Donald Davidson

Author: Urszula M. Zeglen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 1999-02-25

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1134658885

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Donald Davidson has made enormous contributions to the philosophy of action, epistemology, semantics and philosophy of mind and today is recognized as one of the most important analytical philosophers of the late twentieth century. Donald Davidson: Truth, Meaning and Knowledge addresses * Davidson's writings on epistemology and theory of language with their implications of ontology and philosophy of mind * the central issue of whether truth is the ultimate goal of enquiry, challenged by contributions from Richard Rorty and Paul Horwich * Davidson's approach to semantics and applied linguistics as addressed by Kirk Ludwig, Gabriel Segal, Peter Pagin, Stephen Neale, Herman Cappelen and Ernie Lepore and Reinaldo Elugardo * Davidson's advances in the philosophy of mind in relation to the views of Williard V. Quine, John McDowell and Peter F. Strawson, in essays by Roger Gibson and Anita Avramides

Post-Truth
Post-Truth

Author: Steve Fuller

Publisher: Anthem Press

Published: 2018-05-25

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1783086955

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

‘Post-truth’ was Oxford Dictionaries 2016 word of the year. While the term was coined by its disparagers in the light of the Brexit and US presidential campaigns, the roots of post-truth lie deep in the history of Western social and political theory. Post-Truth reaches back to Plato, ranging across theology and philosophy, to focus on the Machiavellian tradition in classical sociology, as exemplified by Vilfredo Pareto, who offered the original modern account of post-truth in terms of the ‘circulation of elites’. The defining feature of ‘post-truth’ is a strong distinction between appearance and reality which is never quite resolved and so the strongest appearance ends up passing for reality. The only question is whether more is gained by rapid changes in appearance or by stabilizing one such appearance. Post-Truth plays out what this means for both politics and science.