Stephen Hetherington – författare

What is knowledge? How hard is it for a person to have knowledge? Good Knowledge, Bad Knowledge confronts contemporary philosophical attempts to answer those classic questions, by identifying and arguing against two fundamental epistemological presumptions. Can there be both better and worse knowledge of some fact? Can you improve your knowledge of a particular fact? Can there be especially bad knowledge of a specific fact? Epistemologists routinely answer these questions with a resounding 'No'. But Stephen Hetherington argues that those standard answers are mistaken. The result is a theory of knowledge that is unique in conceiving of knowledge in a non-absolutist way. The theory offers new solutions to many traditional epistemological puzzles, including various kinds of scepticism, the Gettier challenge, and the problem of the criterion. It also offers a fresh way of using G. E. Moore's anti-sceptical gambit, along with reinterpretations of the epistemic roles of fallibility, luck, relevance, and dogmatism. And what can we know about knowledge? The role of intuition in shaping epistemological thought about knowledge is critically examined. Anyone working on epistemology will enjoy this original and challenging work.

How might epistemology build upon its past and present, so_ as to be better in the future? Epistemology Futures _ takes bold steps towards answering that question. What _ methods will best serve epistemology? Which phenomena and _ concepts deserve more attention from it? Are there _ approaches and assumptions that have impeded its progress _ until now? This volume contains provocative essays by _ prominent epistemologists, presenting many new ideas for _ possible improvements in how to do epistemology. Doubt is _ cast upon the powers of conceptual analysis and of _ epistemological intuition. Surprising aspects of knowledge_ are noticed. What is it? What is it not? Scepticism's limits are traced. What threatens us as potential knowers? What _ does not? The nature and special significance of inquiry, of normative virtues, of understanding, and of disagreement are elucidated, all with an eye on sharpening epistemology's _ future focus. There is definite insight and potential _ foresight. How might real epistemological progress occur in the future? Epistemology Futures offers some intriguing clues.

How might epistemology build upon its past and present, so as to be better in the future? Epistemology Futures takes bold steps towards answering that question. What methods will best serve epistemology? Which phenomena and concepts deserve more attention from it? Are there approaches and assumptions that have impeded its progress until now? This volume contains provocative essays by prominent epistemologists, presenting many new ideas for possible improvements in how to do epistemology. Doubt is cast upon the powers of conceptual analysis and of epistemological intuition. Surprising aspects of knowledge are noticed. What is it? What is it not? Scepticism's limits are traced. What threatens us as potential knowers? What does not? The nature and special significance of inquiry, of normative virtues, of understanding, and of disagreement are elucidated, all with an eye on sharpening epistemology's future focus. There is definite insight and potential foresight. How might real epistemological progress occur in the future? Epistemology Futures offers some intriguing clues.

This book encourages renewed attention by contemporary epistemologists to an area most of them overlook: ancient philosophy. Readers are invited to revisit writings by Plato, Aristotle, Pyrrho, and others, and to ask what new insights might be gained from those philosophical ancestors. Are there ideas, questions, or lines of thought that were present in some ancient philosophy and that have subsequently been overlooked? Are there contemporary epistemological ideas, questions, or lines of thought that can be deepened by gazing back upon some ancient philosophy? The answers are 'yes' and 'yes', according to this book’s 13 chapters, written by philosophers seeking to enrich contemporary epistemology through engaging with ancient epistemology. Key features: Blends ancient epistemology with contemporary epistemology, each reciprocally enriching each.Conceptually sensitive chapters by scholars of ancient epistemology.Historically sensitive chapters by scholars of contemporary epistemology.Clearly written chapters, guiding readers at once through central elements both of ancient and of contemporary epistemology.

Fundamentally, what are we? And what, if anything, do we know? Minds, bodies; free will; evil; meaningful lives; harmful deaths: do such properties make us whatever we are? Truth; rationality; fallibility; knowledge; observation, reason; sceptical doubts: are these also vital to our being whatever we are? You do not understand yourself and others until you have done battle with those questions. And Reality? Knowledge? Philosophy! shows you how to do that. It can help you to gain a better philosophy of people’s lives. Become a better person too. Be surprised at how easily your thinking philosophically about reality and knowledge can lead to your reflecting on life’s ethical complications.Features* Offers a new way of approaching metaphysics and epistemology – via links to ethical and social questions.* Readable, clear and engaging.* Encourages discussion and independent thought.* Blends thought-provoking theories with questions applicable to everyday life.

Fundamentally, what are we? And what, if anything, do we know? Minds, bodies; free will; evil; meaningful lives; harmful deaths: do such properties make us whatever we are? Truth; rationality; fallibility; knowledge; observation, reason; sceptical doubts: are these also vital to our being whatever we are? You do not understand yourself and others until you have done battle with those questions. And Reality? Knowledge? Philosophy! shows you how to do that. It can help you to gain a better philosophy of people’s lives. Become a better person too. Be surprised at how easily your thinking philosophically about reality and knowledge can lead to your reflecting on life’s ethical complications.Features* Offers a new way of approaching metaphysics and epistemology – via links to ethical and social questions.* Readable, clear and engaging.* Encourages discussion and independent thought.* Blends thought-provoking theories with questions applicable to everyday life.

Despite the problems students often have with the theory of knowledge, it remains, necessarily, at the core of the philosophical enterprise. As experienced teachers know, teaching epistemology requires a text that is not only clear and accessible, but also capable of successfully motivating the abstract problems that arise.In Knowledge Puzzles, Stephen Hetherington presents an informal survey of epistemology based on the use of puzzles to illuminate problems of knowledge. Each topic is introduced through a puzzle, and readers are invited to work their own ways toward a solution. Hetherington's light and undogmatic style encourages class discussion and independent thought rather than the memorization of book" answers.Covering all of the most important epistemological issues, informed by classical and contemporary literature, and rich in probing questions and suggestions for further readings, Knowledge Puzzles is a pedagogical breakthrough. Whether it is used as a main text or supplement, this lucid and engaging text will be welcomed by both teachers and students.

Post-Gettier epistemology is increasingly modalized epistemology - proposing and debating modally explicable conditionals with suitably epistemic content (an approach initially inspired by Robert Nozick's 1981 account of knowledge), as needing to be added to 'true belief' in order to define or understand knowing's nature. This Element asks whether such modalized attempts - construed as responding to what the author calls Knowing's Further Features question (bequeathed to us by the Meno and the Theaetetus) - can succeed. The answer is that they cannot. Plato's and Aristotle's views on definition reinforce that result. Still, in appreciating this, we might gain insight into knowing's essence. We might find that knowledge is, essentially, nothing more than true belief.

Philosophy’s value and power are greatly diminished when it operates within a too closely confined professional space. Extreme Philosophy: Bold Ideas and a Spirit of Progress serves as an antidote to the increasing narrowness of the field. It offers readers–including students and general readers–twenty internationally acclaimed philosophers who highlight and defend odd, extreme, or ‘mad’ ideas. The resulting conjectures are often provocative and bold, but always clear and accessible.Ideas discussed in the book, include:propaganda need not be irrationalscience need not be rationalextremism need not be badtax evasion need not be immoralanarchy need not be uninvitingdemocracy need not remain as it generally ishumans might have immaterial soulshuman minds might have all-but-unlimited powersknowing might be nothing beyond being correctspace and time might not be ‘out there’ in realityvalue might be the foundational part of realityvalue might differ in an infinitely repeating realityreality is Onereality is vagueIn brief, the volume pursues adventures in philosophy. This spirit of philosophical risk-taking and openness to new, ‘large’ ideas were vital to philosophy’s ancient origins, and they may also be fertile ground today for philosophical progress.

Philosophy’s value and power are greatly diminished when it operates within a too closely confined professional space. Extreme Philosophy: Bold Ideas and a Spirit of Progress serves as an antidote to the increasing narrowness of the field. It offers readers–including students and general readers–twenty internationally acclaimed philosophers who highlight and defend odd, extreme, or ‘mad’ ideas. The resulting conjectures are often provocative and bold, but always clear and accessible.Ideas discussed in the book, include:propaganda need not be irrationalscience need not be rationalextremism need not be badtax evasion need not be immoralanarchy need not be uninvitingdemocracy need not remain as it generally ishumans might have immaterial soulshuman minds might have all-but-unlimited powersknowing might be nothing beyond being correctspace and time might not be ‘out there’ in realityvalue might be the foundational part of realityvalue might differ in an infinitely repeating realityreality is Onereality is vagueIn brief, the volume pursues adventures in philosophy. This spirit of philosophical risk-taking and openness to new, ‘large’ ideas were vital to philosophy’s ancient origins, and they may also be fertile ground today for philosophical progress.

Edmund Gettier's 1963 verdict about what knowledge is not has become an item of philosophical orthodoxy, accepted by philosophers as a genuine epistemological result. It assures us that - contrary to what Plato and later philosophers have thought - knowledge is not merely a true belief well supported by epistemic justification. But that orthodoxy has generated the Gettier problem - epistemology's continuing struggle to understand how to accommodate Gettier's apparent result within an improved conception of knowledge. In this book, Stephen Hetherington argues that none of epistemology's standard attempts to solve that problem have succeeded: he shows how subtle yet fundamental mistakes - regarding explication, methodology, properties, modality, and fallibility - have permeated those responses to Gettier's challenge. His fresh and original book outlines a new way of solving the problem, and an improved grasp of Gettier's challenge and its significance is the result. In a sense, Plato can now embrace Gettier.

When philosophers try to understand the nature of knowledge, they have to confront the Gettier problem. This problem, set out in Edmund Gettier's famous paper of 1963, has yet to be solved, and has challenged our best attempts to define what knowledge is. This volume offers an organised sequence of accessible and distinctive chapters explaining the history of debate surrounding Gettier's challenge, and where that debate should take us next. The chapters describe and evaluate a wide range of ideas about knowledge that have been sparked by philosophical engagements with the Gettier problem, including such phenomena as fallibility, reasoning, evidence, reliability, truth-tracking, context, luck, intellectual virtue, wisdom, conceptual analysis, intuition, experimental philosophy, and explication. The result is an authoritative survey of fifty-plus years of epistemological research - along with provocative ideas for future research - into the nature of knowledge.

Metaphysics and Epistemology: A Guided Anthology presents a comprehensive introductory overview of key themes, thinkers, and texts in metaphysics and epistemology. Presents a wide-ranging collection of carefully excerpted readings on metaphysics and epistemologyBlends classic and contemporary works to reveal the historical development and present directions in the fields of metaphysics and epistemologyProvides succinct, insightful commentary to introduce the essence of each selection at the beginning of chapters which also serve to inter-link the selected writings

Metaphysics and Epistemology: A Guided Anthology presents a comprehensive introductory overview of key themes, thinkers, and texts in metaphysics and epistemology. Presents a wide-ranging collection of carefully excerpted readings on metaphysics and epistemologyBlends classic and contemporary works to reveal the historical development and present directions in the fields of metaphysics and epistemologyProvides succinct, insightful commentary to introduce the essence of each selection at the beginning of chapters which also serve to inter-link the selected writings

This book is inspired by a single powerful question. What is it to be great as a philosopher? No single grand answer is presumed to be possible; instead, rewardingly close studies of philosophical greatness are developed. This is a scholarly yet accessible volume, blending metaphilosophy with the long history of philosophy and traversing centuries and continents. The result is a series of case studies by accomplished scholars, each chapter trying to understand and convey a particular philosopher’s greatness:Lloyd P. Gerson on PlatoKaryn Lai on ZhuangziDavid Bronstein on AristotleJonardon Ganeri on BuddhaghosaJeffrey Hause on AquinasGary Hatfield on DescartesKaren Detlefsen on du ChâteletDon Garrett on HumeAllen Wood on Kant (as a moral philosopher)Nicholas F. Stang on Kant (as a metaphysician)Ken Gemes on NietzscheCheryl Misak on PeirceDavid Macarthur on WittgensteinThis also serves a larger philosophical purpose. Might we gain increased clarity about what philosophy is in the first place? After all, in practice we individuate philosophy partly through its greatest practitioners’ greatest contributions.The book does not discuss every philosopher who has been regarded as great. The point is not to offer a definitive list of The Great Philosophers, but, rather, to learn something about what great philosophy is and might be, from illuminated examples of past greatness.

This book is inspired by a single powerful question. What is it to be great as a philosopher? No single grand answer is presumed to be possible; instead, rewardingly close studies of philosophical greatness are developed. This is a scholarly yet accessible volume, blending metaphilosophy with the long history of philosophy and traversing centuries and continents. The result is a series of case studies by accomplished scholars, each chapter trying to understand and convey a particular philosopher’s greatness:Lloyd P. Gerson on PlatoKaryn Lai on ZhuangziDavid Bronstein on AristotleJonardon Ganeri on BuddhaghosaJeffrey Hause on AquinasGary Hatfield on DescartesKaren Detlefsen on du ChâteletDon Garrett on HumeAllen Wood on Kant (as a moral philosopher)Nicholas F. Stang on Kant (as a metaphysician)Ken Gemes on NietzscheCheryl Misak on PeirceDavid Macarthur on WittgensteinThis also serves a larger philosophical purpose. Might we gain increased clarity about what philosophy is in the first place? After all, in practice we individuate philosophy partly through its greatest practitioners’ greatest contributions.The book does not discuss every philosopher who has been regarded as great. The point is not to offer a definitive list of The Great Philosophers, but, rather, to learn something about what great philosophy is and might be, from illuminated examples of past greatness.

Edmund Gettier's 1963 verdict about what knowledge is not has become an item of philosophical orthodoxy, accepted by philosophers as a genuine epistemological result. It assures us that - contrary to what Plato and later philosophers have thought - knowledge is not merely a true belief well supported by epistemic justification. But that orthodoxy has generated the Gettier problem - epistemology's continuing struggle to understand how to accommodate Gettier's apparent result within an improved conception of knowledge. In this book, Stephen Hetherington argues that none of epistemology's standard attempts to solve that problem have succeeded: he shows how subtle yet fundamental mistakes - regarding explication, methodology, properties, modality, and fallibility - have permeated those responses to Gettier's challenge. His fresh and original book outlines a new way of solving the problem, and an improved grasp of Gettier's challenge and its significance is the result. In a sense, Plato can now embrace Gettier.

When philosophers try to understand the nature of knowledge, they have to confront the Gettier problem. This problem, set out in Edmund Gettier's famous paper of 1963, has yet to be solved, and has challenged our best attempts to define what knowledge is. This volume offers an organised sequence of accessible and distinctive chapters explaining the history of debate surrounding Gettier's challenge, and where that debate should take us next. The chapters describe and evaluate a wide range of ideas about knowledge that have been sparked by philosophical engagements with the Gettier problem, including such phenomena as fallibility, reasoning, evidence, reliability, truth-tracking, context, luck, intellectual virtue, wisdom, conceptual analysis, intuition, experimental philosophy, and explication. The result is an authoritative survey of fifty-plus years of epistemological research - along with provocative ideas for future research - into the nature of knowledge.

What have the great philosophers written about the nature of knowledge? Epistemology: The Key Thinkers tells the story of how our thinking about knowledge has developed, introducing you to some of the problems and forces that have dominated the history of philosophy.Beginning with Plato, Aristotle, ancient sceptics, and the medievals, before moving to Descartes, the British empiricists, Kant, American pragmatism, and twentieth-century thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, W. V. O. Quine, Alvin Goldman, and beyond, each chapter guides you through the ideas, contribution, and legacy of a leading philosopher or movement. This second edition includes:· A new chapter covering medieval epistemology · Extended guides to further reading and future directions for epistemologyThe final chapter looks to the future, highlighting some of the very latest debates that energise philosophical writing today about knowledge and how we know what we know.

What have the great philosophers written about the nature of knowledge? Epistemology: The Key Thinkers tells the story of how our thinking about knowledge has developed, introducing you to some of the problems and forces that have dominated the history of philosophy.Beginning with Plato, Aristotle, ancient sceptics, and the medievals, before moving to Descartes, the British empiricists, Kant, American pragmatism, and twentieth-century thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, W. V. O. Quine, Alvin Goldman, and beyond, each chapter guides you through the ideas, contribution, and legacy of a leading philosopher or movement. This second edition includes:· A new chapter covering medieval epistemology · Extended guides to further reading and future directions for epistemologyThe final chapter looks to the future, highlighting some of the very latest debates that energise philosophical writing today about knowledge and how we know what we know.

Philosophy has long embraced epistemology as one of its central elements. What is knowledge? How do we gain it? Can we gain it? Or do we always deceive ourselves when thinking that we have knowledge? Are we too deeply fallible ever to know something? For centuries, these questions have helped to define and motivate epistemological research. This volume engages strikingly with them, offering some unusual answers.Stephen Hetherington’s prominent career within epistemology has been a series of bold, varied and provocative arguments and ideas. Bringing together some elements of his unique body of writing for the first time, this collection features previously published as well as new material displaying and extending some of his highly original approaches to key issues including knowledge, justification, fallibility, scepticism and the Gettier Problem.Advancing our understanding of the systemic nature of Hetherington’s thinking, Stephen Hetherington on Epistemology presents his distinctive perspective on some of philosophy’s central questions about knowledge – an inviting blend of forensic detail and ‘big picture’ proposals.

Philosophy has long embraced epistemology as one of its central elements. What is knowledge? How do we gain it? Can we gain it? Or do we always deceive ourselves when thinking that we have knowledge? Are we too deeply fallible ever to know something? For centuries, these questions have helped to define and motivate epistemological research. This volume engages strikingly with them, offering some unusual answers.Stephen Hetherington’s prominent career within epistemology has been a series of bold, varied and provocative arguments and ideas. Bringing together some elements of his unique body of writing for the first time, this collection features previously published as well as new material displaying and extending some of his highly original approaches to key issues including knowledge, justification, fallibility, scepticism and the Gettier Problem.Advancing our understanding of the systemic nature of Hetherington’s thinking, Stephen Hetherington on Epistemology presents his distinctive perspective on some of philosophy’s central questions about knowledge – an inviting blend of forensic detail and ‘big picture’ proposals.

To know epistemology’s history is to know better what contemporary epistemology could be and perhaps should be – and what it need not be and perhaps ought not to be. Knowledge in Contemporary Philosophy introduces many of the more developed ideas, issues, and theories from this past century of epistemological reflection. By doing so, it captures the current concerns of one of Western philosophy’s greatest challenges: understanding the nature of knowledge. Covering recent discussions about scientific, social, and self-knowledge, and more, along with attempts to understand knowledge naturalistically, contextually, and modally, this volume follows conceptions of knowledge that have been proposed, defended, replaced, and proposed anew by contemporary philosophers. Knowledge in Contemporary Philosophy reveals much of what is currently vital and now evolving within epistemology.

Within these four volumes, we meet much of whatever epistemology has been and is. Why is this form of historical engagement philosophically important?The Philosophy of Knowledge: A History presents the history of one of Western philosophy’s greatest challenges: understanding the nature of knowledge. To know epistemology’s history is to know better what contemporary epistemology could be and perhaps should be – and what it need not be and perhaps ought not to be. Divided chronologically into four volumes, it follows conceptions of knowledge that have been proposed, defended, replaced, and proposed anew by ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary philosophers.Each volume centers around three key questions: what conceptions of knowledge have been offered? Which have shaped epistemology in particular and philosophy in general? How is knowledge conceived by philosophers now? Together these volumes trace the historical development of knowledge for the first time, covering:- Presocratics, Sophists and treatments of knowledge offered by Socrates and Plato- The influence of Aristotle and Augustine during the Middle Ages- Questions of science and religion in the 17th, 18th and 19th century and the work of Descartes, Hobbes, Kant and Leibniz- Contemporary discussions about scientific, social and self-knowledge and attempts to understand knowledge naturalistically, contextually and normatively.With original insights into the vast sweep of ways in which philosophers have sought to understand knowledge, The Philosophy of Knowledge: A History embraces what is vital and evolving within contemporary epistemology. Overseen by an international team of leading philosophers and featuring 50 specially-commissioned chapters, this is a major collection on one of philosophy’s defining topics.

A bold and revisionary synthesis of contemporary and ancient Greek ways of knowing that confronts epistemology with its Platonic roots and reveals its flaws.Through close engagement with Plato’s Meno, Theaetetus, and Republic, Stephen Hetherington argues that several foundational assumptions in contemporary epistemology fail to hold up when measured against the philosophical depth of these dialogues. Should epistemology, as practiced today, begin anew?Focusing on central Platonic concerns about the nature of knowledge, Hetherington challenges the idea that epistemology can be pursued as a purely conceptual enterprise. He suggests that a historically grounded approach may not only enrich epistemological inquiry but also draw it closer to metaphysical reflection.In this ambitious work, Hetherington explains that we need a clearer understanding of epistemology’s Platonic roots—both to make sense of what we are doing when we ask what knowledge is, and to improve how we understand knowledge itself.

From Plato, through Descartes to W.V. Quine and Edmund Gettier, this concise introduction and reference guide explores the history of thinking about 'knowledge'. Exploring what great philosophers have written about the nature of knowledge and about how we know what we know, this is a concise and accessible introduction to the field of epistemology. "Epistemology: The Key Thinkers" tells the story of how epistemological thinking has developed over the centuries, through the work of the finest thinkers on the topic. Chapters by leading contemporary scholars guide readers through the ideas of key philosophers, beginning with Plato and Aristotle, through Descartes and the British empiricists, to such twentieth-century thinkers such as Wittgenstein, Quine, Goldman, and beyond. The final chapter looks to the future, highlighting some of the very latest debates that energise philosophical writing today about knowledge. Each chapter ends with a guide to further reading, encouraging students to explore the key writings for themselves, making "Epistemology: The Key Thinkers" a perfect guide for study, revision, and reference."The Key Thinkers" series is aimed at undergraduate students and offers clear, concise and accessible edited guides to the key thinkers in each of the central topics in philosophy. Each book offers a comprehensive overview of the major thinkers who have contributed to the historical development of a key area of philosophy, providing a survey of their major works and the evolution of the central ideas in that area.

From Plato, through Descartes to W.V. Quine and Edmund Gettier, this concise introduction and reference guide explores the history of thinking about 'knowledge'. Exploring what great philosophers have written about the nature of knowledge and about how we know what we know, this is a concise and accessible introduction to the field of epistemology. "Epistemology: The Key Thinkers" tells the story of how epistemological thinking has developed over the centuries, through the work of the finest thinkers on the topic. Chapters by leading contemporary scholars guide readers through the ideas of key philosophers, beginning with Plato and Aristotle, through Descartes and the British empiricists, to such twentieth-century thinkers such as Wittgenstein, Quine, Goldman, and beyond. The final chapter looks to the future, highlighting some of the very latest debates that energise philosophical writing today about knowledge. Each chapter ends with a guide to further reading, encouraging students to explore the key writings for themselves, making "Epistemology: The Key Thinkers" a perfect guide for study, revision, and reference."The Key Thinkers" series is aimed at undergraduate students and offers clear, concise and accessible edited guides to the key thinkers in each of the central topics in philosophy. Each book offers a comprehensive overview of the major thinkers who have contributed to the historical development of a key area of philosophy, providing a survey of their major works and the evolution of the central ideas in that area.

Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge. Epistemologists seek to understand knowledge’s nature and availability. What is knowledge? There are competing theories. Can we really have knowledge? Challenges abound.In this lively book, Stephen Hetherington introduces us to epistemological theorizing. He builds a theory and tests it, refines it, and challenges it again. He explores such topics as evidence, truth and belief, different kinds of knowledge, and knowledge’s value, as well as sceptical views concerning knowledge of the physical world, one’s own mind and memory, and rational limits for observation and reason. This epistemological theorizing is then applied to some of life’s most pressing issues, such as how to live and how to understand ourselves and others.What is Epistemology? is a practical and student-friendly guide to one of the most dynamic areas of philosophy. It will be the go-to introductory epistemology text.