One of the world's leading epistemologists provides a sophisticated,
revisionist introduction to the subject
In this concise book, one of the world's leading epistemologists
provides a sophisticated, revisionist introduction to the problem of
knowledge in Western philosophy. Modern and contemporary accounts of
epistemology tend to focus on limited questions of knowledge and
skepticism, such as how we can know the external world, other minds, the
past through memory, the future through induction, or the world's depth
and structure through inference. This book steps back for a better view
of the more general issues posed by the ancient Greek Pyrrhonists.
Returning to and illuminating this older, broader epistemological
tradition, Ernest Sosa develops an original account of the subject,
giving it substance not with Cartesian theology but with science and
common sense. Descartes is a part of this ancient tradition, but he goes
beyond it by considering not just whether knowledge is possible in the
first place, but also how we can properly attain it. In Cartesian
epistemology, Sosa finds a virtue-theoretic account, one that he extends
beyond the Cartesian context. Once epistemology is viewed in this light,
many of its problems can be solved or fall away. The result is an
important reevaluation of epistemology that will be essential reading
for students and teachers.
