Beyond "Justification": Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation

by William P. Alston

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801473326
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	10/24/2006
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late William P. Alston was Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Syracuse University. His books include A Realist Conception of Truth, Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning, The Reliability of Sense Perception, and Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience (all from Cornell).

What People are Saying About This

Richard Fumerton

This book has all of the virtues one has come to expect from William P. Alston's work. His unpretentious, straightforward writing is a welcome return to the philosophical classics of earlier times. Alston makes many interesting and important claims both in criticizing and defending various accounts of epistemic justification—now reinterpreted by him as attempts to suggest epistemic desiderata of beliefs. Beyond 'Justification' makes an extremely valuable contribution to the field of epistemology.

Ernest Sosa

William P. Alston illuminates epistemology's dark core issues. It is wonderful to see his powerful intelligence once again so helpfully at work.

Robert Audi

This book is a wide-ranging and powerful challenge to traditional epistemology by one of the foremost epistemologists of our time. It is both indispensable for specialists and so lucid and concrete that it is readily accessible to general readers who want an account of many of the major topics occupying epistemology in the past half century—belief-formation, explanation, foundations of knowledge, intellectual virtue, internalism and externalism, perception, reliability, skepticism, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

Beyond 'Justification' is an engaging, provocative, and carefully argued book. It displays all the virtues of clarity and rigor that epistemologists have long admired in Alston's work. It is an important contribution.

--Richard Feldman, University of Rochester "Philosophical Review"

From the Publisher

"William P. Alston illuminates epistemology's dark core issues. It is wonderful to see his powerful intelligence once again so helpfully at work."

Ernest Sosa

"This book is a wide-ranging and powerful challenge to traditional epistemology by one of the foremost epistemologists of our time. It is both indispensable for specialists and so lucid and concrete that it is readily accessible to general readers who want an account of many of the major topics occupying epistemology in the past half century—belief-formation, explanation, foundations of knowledge, intellectual virtue, internalism and externalism, perception, reliability, skepticism, and many others."

Robert Audi

"This book has all of the virtues one has come to expect from William P. Alston's work. His unpretentious, straightforward writing is a welcome return to the philosophical classics of earlier times. Alston makes many interesting and important claims both in criticizing and defending various accounts of epistemic justification—now reinterpreted by him as attempts to suggest epistemic desiderata of beliefs. Beyond 'Justification' makes an extremely valuable contribution to the field of epistemology."

Richard Fumerton

Beyond 'Justification' is an engaging, provocative, and carefully argued book. It displays all the virtues of clarity and rigor that epistemologists have long admired in Alston's work. It is an important contribution.

Philosophical Review - Richard Feldman