Knowledge and the state of nature : an essay in conceptual synthesis / Edward Craig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Craig, Edward, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Knowledge, Theory of.

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Physical Description:

x, 169 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1990.

Summary:

In this illuminating study Craig argues that the standard practice of analyzing the concept of knowledge has radical defects--arbitrary restriction of the subject matter and risky theoretical presuppositions. He proposes a new approach similar to the "state-of-nature" method found in political theory, building the concept up from a hypothesis about its social function and the needs it fulfills. Shedding light on much that philosophers have written about knowledge, its analysis and the obstacles to its analysis, and the debate over skepticism, this compelling work will be of interest to students and scholars of epistemology and the philosophy of language.

Contents:

Nature and motivation of project

Doubts answered

Plato, Pears, Hobbes, comparison with State-of-Nature Theory in Political Philosophy

Evolutionary epistemology

Derivation of first condition; the problem whether belief necessary

Necessary and sufficient conditions an unsuitable format

The prototypical case

Need for third condition

Discussion of the Nozick-Dretske analysis

Why causal theory, tracking, reliabilism all good approximations

Why justified true belief a good approximation

Comparison with Grice

Distinction between Informant and Source of Information; its nature and point

Application to putative 'knowledge without belief' cases; and to comparativism: Goldman

Being right by accident

All analyses insufficient

Blackburn: the Mirv/Pirv principle

Local v. Global Reliabilism

Discussion of McGinn

Externalist and Internalist analyses

The first-person case

Knowing that one knows

Insufficiency of the various analyses

The 'No false lemma' principle

Its rationale

and its effect

Objectivisation

The 'cart before the horse' objection

and the response

Lotteries and multiple premises: the pull towards certainty

Knowledge and natural laws

Objectivisation and scepticism

Unger's first account

Two explanations of scepticism: the first-person approach, and the absolute perspective

Knowledge and involvement

What makes truth valuable?

Testimony and the transmission of knowledge

Welbourne: believing the speaker

Other locutions: Knowing Fred

Information v. acquaintance

Interacting with Fred

Knowing London

and German

Other locutions: Knowing how to

The Inquirer and the Apprentice

'Knows how to' compared with 'can'

and with 'knows that'

Appendix Unger's Semantic Relativism 162.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0198242433 :

OCLC:

21373733