Beyond "Justification" : : Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation / / William P. Alston.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Alston, William P.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (274 p.)

Much of the writing in Anglo-American epistemology in the twentieth century focused on the conditions for beliefs being "justified." In a book that seeks to shift the ground of debate within theory of knowledge, William P. Alston finds that the century-long search for a correct account of the nature and conditions of epistemic justification misses the point. Alston calls for that search to be suspended and for talk of epistemic justification to cease. He proposes instead an approach to the epistemology of belief that focuses on the evaluation of various "epistemic desiderata" that may be satisfied by beliefs.Alston finds that features of belief that are desirable for the goals of cognition include having an adequate basis, being formed in a reliable way, and coherence within bodies of belief. In Alston's view, a belief's being based on an adequate ground and its being formed in a reliable way, though often treated as competing accounts of justification, are virtually identical. Beyond "Justification" also contains discussions of fundamental questions about the epistemic status of principles and beliefs and appropriate responses to various kinds of skepticism.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I. THE NATURALISTIC APPROACH -- CHAPTER 1. DISPENSING WITH "JUSTIFICATION" -- CHAPTER 2. THE EPISTEMIC POINT OF VIEW -- CHAPTER 3. THE EPISTEMIC DESIDERATA APPROACH -- CHAPTER 4. DEONTOLOGICAL DESIDERATA -- CHAPTERS 5. ADEQUACY OF GROUNDS OF BELIEF -- CHAPTER 6. RELIABILITY AND OTHER TRUTH-CONDUCIVE DESIDERATA -- CHAPTER 7. ADDITIONAL EPISTEMIC DESIDERATA -- CHAPTER 8. WHERE PARTICULAR DESIDERATA ARE OF SPECIAL IMPORTANCE -- PART II . ULTIMATE QUESTIONS: THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF EPISTEMOLOGY -- CHAPTER 9. CRITICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT EPISTEMOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY -- CHAPTER 10. SKEPTICISM -- CHAPTER 11. THE EPISTEMIC DESIDERATA APPROACH AND THE OVERALL EPISTEMIC ORGANIZATION OF BELIEF -- ENVOI -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX