Described by Hilary Putnam as "both a fine introduction and a significant contribution" to epistemology, and by Anthony Quinton as "at once comprehensive ... and judicious," Evidence and Inquiry is unique both in its scope and in its originality. C. I. Lewis's foundationalism, BonJour's and Davidson's coherentism, Popper's critical rationalism, Quine's naturalism, and Rorty's, Stich's, and Churchland's anti-epistemological neopragmatism all come under Haack's uniquely thorough critical scrutiny. Core epistemological questions about the nature of belief, the character and structure of evidence, the determinants of evidential quality, the relation of justification, probability, and truth, among others, are given refreshingly novel, and reasonable, answers.Most books in epistemology are written only for other epistemologists. But Evidence and Inquiry has proven of interest not only to specialists but also to many other readers, from thoughtful scientists to thoughtful scholars of law and literature.This new, expanded edition-with a substantial new foreword and several additional papers on topics ranging from feminist epistemology to Peirce's critique of the adversarial legal system and Bentham's critique of exclusionary rules of evidence-should attract longtime readers and newcomers alike.
Haack finds a happy mean between the old foundationalist epistemology, as exemplified by C.I. Lewis, and more recent coherentist epistemologies coming down from Hegel and others. This book is a modest, yet important, step in the development of the theory of knowledge. Essentially, she argues for muti-directional non-deductive support relations should be considered as normative facets in the justification of (evidence for) theories. Of course, there is also a lot more said in the book than this. Haack also addresses the Quinean idea of a naturalization of epistemology. She does this with a clear head, that is free of a pre-concieved metaphysical agenda. She decides middle ground between a science independent epistemology and a extreme sort of "scientism" is the safest place to stand. I found her arguements persuasive here, and I decided maybe epistemology is a worthwhile area of philosophy, when practised as a semi-independent investigation, set off from biological psychology, and the sciences of cognition and learning behavior.
The pinnacle of 20th C. epistemology
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Haack solves the conundrum of coherentism vs. foundationalism. This is rare: philosophy that proves something interesting to be true. No other 20th C. epistemology will be widely read 100 years from now. This one will required reading even then.
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