170mm 170mm18.2mm244m

m

Contemporary Debates In Philosophy

Second Edition

Contemporary Debates in Epistemology

Edited by

Matthias Steup,John Turri,and Ernest Sosa

Contem

porary Debates in Epistem

ologyEdited by Steup, Turri, and Sosa

I expect that this new edition will serve to guide epistemological practice for the next several years, and with at least as much authority as the first edition. If you want to contribute to the most important epistemological conversations today, you will need to read this book.

Ram Neta, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Praise for the First Edition

This book is packed with cutting-edge epistemology by excellent contributors to the field. It is both comprehensive and admirably brief.

Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame

What are the burning problems of todays epistemology? What are the most promising solutions to these problems? They are all in this timely volume, explained and debated by leading authorities.

Alvin Goldman, Rutgers University

With leading and emerging figures in epistemology debating some of its most fundamental questions, this volume will be required reading for anyone interested in where the theory of knowledge has been and where it is going. A superb collection.

Paul Boghossian, New York University

Building on the reputation of the first edition, this fully revised and updated volume expands the original content by including 14 newly commissioned essays, presenting perspectives on differing sides of the most vibrant current debates in epistemology: Is knowledge contextual? Can skepticism be refuted? Can belief be justified through coherence alone? The expanded content evinces the central truth of philosophy as a discipline: that progress comes only through argumentation, dialectic, and debate.

In common with the other volumes in the Contemporary Debates in Philosophy series, this new edition combines expert editing and judiciously commissioned material, adopting the series format which pairs two essays espousing opposing views on a particular topic or theme in epistemology. The head-to-head chapters offer forceful advocacy of some of todays most compelling philosophical stances as well as a brilliant opportunity for philosophy students to weigh the arguments and engage in comparative analysis of epistemological concepts that are constantly changing and developing.

Matthias Steup is Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University, USA, where he is head of the Department of Philosophy. A specialist in epistemology, he is a widely published author and editor. Previous work includes A Companion to Epistemology (co-edited with Jonathan Dancy and Ernest Sosa, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, second edition), the first edition of Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (co-edited with Ernest Sosa, Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), and Knowledge, Truth and Duty (2001).

John Turri is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, Canada. A specialist in epistemology and the philosophy of language, he has published dozens of articles on these topics in leading journals such as Philosophical Review, Nos, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Analysis, and Philosophical Studies. He is the author of Epistemology: A Guide (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and currently holds an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation.

Ernest Sosa is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, USA. He has published books and articles in epistemology, including Knowledge in Perspective (1991), Epistemic Justification (with Laurence BonJour, Blackwell, 2003), A Virtue Epistemology (2007), Reflective Knowledge (2009), and Knowing Full Well (2011).

pg3913File Attachment9780470672099.jpg

Praise for Contemporary Debates in Epistemology 2e

When Blackwell published the first edition of Contemporary Debates in Epistemology in 2005, that volume very quickly became epistemologys superego: it expressed the ideals that were implicit in the best recent epistemological work, and it served to guide both practicing and apprenticing epistemologists to the questions that mattered most to the field back then. Of course, the questions that matter most in 2013 are not exactly the same as those that mattered most in 2005; thus, the need for a new edition. I expect that this new edition which contains units on the now widely discussed issues of whether knowledge is epistemologically fundamental, whether practical concerns encroach on epistemic status, whether evidential justification is permissive, what sort of epistemic luck (if any) is incompatible with knowledge will serve to guide episte-mological practice for the next several years, and with at least as much authority as the first edition. The contributors are among the most prominent in the field, and their contributions represent some of the best work being done on the topics under discussion. If you want to contribute to the most important epistemological conversa-tions today, you will need to read this book.

Ram Neta, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Praise for the First Edition

This book is packed with cutting-edge epistemology by excellent contributors to the field. It is both comprehensive and admirably brief.

Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame

What are the burning problems of todays epistemology? What are the most prom-ising solutions to these problems? They are all in this timely volume, explained and debated by leading authorities.

Alvin Goldman, Rutgers University

With leading and emerging figures in epistemology debating some of its most fundamental questions, this volume will be required reading for anyone interested in where the theory of knowledge has been and where it is going. A superb collection.

Paul Boghossian, New York University

Contemporary Debates in Philosophy

In teaching and research, philosophy makes progress through argumentation and debate. Contemporary Debates in Philosophy provides a forum for students and their teachers to follow and participate in the debates that animate philosophy today in the western world. Each volume presents pairs of opposing viewpoints on contested themes and topics in the central subfields of philosophy. Each volume is edited and introduced by an expert in the field, and also includes an index, bibliography, and suggestions for further reading. The opposing essays, commissioned especially for the volumes in the series, are thorough but accessible presentations of opposing points of view.

1. Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion edited by Michael L. Peterson and Raymond J. Vanarragon

2. Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science edited by Christopher Hitchcock

3. Contemporary Debates in Epistemology edited by Matthias Steup and Ernest Sosa

4. Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics edited by Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher Heath Wellman

5. Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art edited by Matthew Kieran

6. Contemporary Debates in Moral Theory edited by James Dreier

7. Contemporary Debates in Cognitive Science edited by Robert Stainton

8. Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Mind edited by Brian McLaughlin and Jonathan Cohen

9. Contemporary Debates in Social Philosophy edited by Laurence Thomas

10. Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics edited by Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean W. Zimmerman

11. Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy edited by Thomas Christiano and John Christman

12. Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Biology edited by Francisco J. Ayala and Robert Arp

13. Contemporary Debates in Bioethics edited by Arthur L. Caplan and Robert Arp

14. Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Second Edition edited by Matthias Steup, John Turri, and Ernest Sosa

Contemporary Debates in EpistemologysEConD EDition

Edited by

Matthias Steup John Turri Ernest Sosa

This edition first published 2014 2014 John Wiley & Sons, IncContemporary Debates in Epistemology, 1st edition, published in 2005

Wiley-Blackwell is an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, formed by the merger of Wileys global Scientific, Technical and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing.

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

Editorial Offices350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UKThe Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.

The right of Matthias Steup, John Turri, and Ernest Sosa to be identified as the authors of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the priorpermission ofthe publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print maynot be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author(s) have used their best effortsinpreparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy orcompleteness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is notengaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable fordamages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services ofacompetent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Contemporary debates in epistemology / edited by Matthias Steup, John Turri, Ernest Sosa. Second Edition. pages cm. (Contemporary debates in philosophy ; 2408) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-67209-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Knowledge, Theory of. I. Steup, Matthias, editor of compilation. BD161.C6545 2013 121dc23

2013006412

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover design by Cyan Design: www.cyandesign.co.uk

Set in 10/12.5pt Rotis Serif by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India

1 2014

Contents

Notes on Contributors viiiPreface to the Second Edition xiiiPreface to the First Edition xiv

1 Should Knowledge Come First? 1Knowledge First Timothy Williamson 1What Is Knowledge-first Epistemology? Trent Dougherty and Patrick Rysiew 10Experience First Trent Dougherty and Patrick Rysiew 17Knowledge Still First Timothy Williamson 22Still Nowhere Else to Start Trent Dougherty and Patrick Rysiew 25

2 Is Knowledge Closed under Known Entailment? 27The Case against Closure Fred Dretske 27The Case for Closure John Hawthorne 40Reply to Hawthorne Fred Dretske 56

3 Is Knowledge Contextual? 60Contextualism Contested Earl Conee 60Contextualism Defended Stewart Cohen 69Contextualism Contested Some More Earl Conee 75Contextualism Defended Some More Stewart Cohen 79

4 Do Practical Matters Affect Whether You Know? 84Practical Matters Affect Whether You Know Jeremy Fantl and Matthew McGrath 84Practical Matters Do Not Affect Whether You Know Baron Reed 95

vi Contents

5 Can Skepticism Be Refuted? 107The Refutation of Skepticism Jonathan Vogel 108The Challenge of Refuting Skepticism Richard Fumerton 120

6 Are Intellectually Virtuous Motives Essential to Knowledge? 133Knowledge Need Not Be Virtuously Motivated Jason Baehr 133Knowledge and the Motive for Truth Linda Zagzebski 140Reply to Zagzebski Jason Baehr 146Reply to Baehr Linda Zagzebski 149

7 Can Knowledge Be Lucky? 152Knowledge Cannot Be Lucky Duncan Pritchard 152Knowledge Can Be Lucky Stephen Hetherington 164

8 Is There a Priori Knowledge? 177In Defense of the a Priori Laurence BonJour 177There Is No a Priori Michael Devitt 185Reply to Devitt Laurence BonJour 195Reply to BonJour Michael Devitt 197Last Rejoinder Laurence BonJour 200

9 Is There Immediate Justification? 202There Is Immediate Justification James Pryor 202There Is No Immediate Justification Juan Comesaa 222Reply to Comesaa James Pryor 235Reply to Pryor Juan Comesaa 239

10 Can Belief Be Justified Through Coherence Alone? 244Non-foundationalist Epistemology: Holism, Coherence, and Tenability Catherine Z. Elgin 244Why Coherence Is Not Enough: A Defense of Moderate Foundationalism James Van Cleve 255Reply to Van Cleve Catherine Z. Elgin 267Reply to Elgin James Van Cleve 271

11 Is Infinitism the Solution to the Regress Problem? 274Infinitism Is the Solution to the Regress Problem Peter Klein 274Infinitism Is Not the Solution to the Regress Problem Carl Ginet 283Reply to Ginet Peter Klein 291Reply to Klein Carl Ginet 295

12 Can Evidence Be Permissive? 298Evidence Can Be Permissive Thomas Kelly 298Evidence Cannot Be Permissive Roger White 312

Contents vii

13 Is Justification Internal? 324Justification Is Not Internal John Greco 325Justification Is Internal Richard Feldman 337

14 Is Truth the Primary Epistemic Goal? 351Truth Is Not the Primary Epistemic Goal Jonathan L. Kvanvig 352Truth as the Primary Epistemic Goal: A Working Hypothesis Marian David 363

Index 378

Notes on Contributors

Jason Baehr is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He works mainly at the intersection of virtue theory and epistemology and is author of The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2011). He is currently directing the Intellectual Virtues and Education Project, a three-year grant project involving the application of philosophical models of intellectual virtue to educational theory and practice.

Laurence BonJour is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. He has published numerous articles in epistemology and the philosophy of mind and is the author of The Structure of Empirical Knowledge (Harvard University Press, 1985), InDefense of Pure Reason (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, 2010), and (together with Ernest Sosa) Epistemic Justification: Internalism versus Externalism, Foundationalism versus Virtues (Blackwell, 2003).

Stewart Cohen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona and the University of St Andrews. He is also the editor of Philosophical Studies and has published numerous articles in epistemology.

Juan Comesaa received his PhD from Brown University, taught for several years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is now Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. He works mainly in epistemology, and has published papers on reliabilism, safety, disjunctivism, the internalism/externalism debate, and disagreement, among other topics.

Earl Conee is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Rochester. He is the author, with Richard Feldman, of Evidentialism: Essays in Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2004), and in addition to advocating invariantism in the present work, he defends other old-fashioned epistemological views in other writings.

Notes on Contributors ix

Marian David is Professor for Theoretical Philosophy at the Karl-Franzens Universitt Graz, Austria. He has published articles in the philosophy of language and in epistemology. He is the author of Correspondence and Disquotation: AnEssay on the Nature of Truth (Oxford 1994) and co-editor of the journal Grazer Philosophische Studien.

Michael Devitt is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center at CUNY. His main research interests are in the philosophy of language and linguistics, and in issues of realism. He is the author of Designation (Columbia University Press, 1981), Coming to Our Senses (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Realism and Truth (Princeton University Press, 1997), Language and Reality (with Kim Sterelny, MIT Press, 1999), Ignorance of Language (Oxford University Press, 2006), and the editor (with Richard Hanley) of the Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language (Blackwell, 2006). His most recent book is Putting Metaphysics First (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Trent Dougherty is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, Texas. Hepublishes frequently in epistemology and philosophy of religion. His central interest in philosophy is taking probability and personhood seriously, separately and together. He is editor of Evidentialism and Its Discontents (Oxford University Press, 2011) and (with Justin McBrayer) Skeptical Theism: New Essays (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Fred Dretske is Professor Emeritus, Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin. He is presently Research Scholar (occasionally doing some teaching) at Duke University. His interest in the past 10 years has centered on the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of mind in particular, self-knowledge. A collection of his essays on these topics, Perception, Knowledge, and Belief, was published in 2000 by Cambridge University Press.

Catherine Z. Elgin is professor of the philosophy of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the author of Considered Judgment (Princeton University Press, 1996), Between the Absolute and the Arbitrary (Cornell University Press, 1997), With Reference to Reference (Hackett, 1983), and co-author with Nelson Goodman ofReconceptions (Hackett, 1998). Her current research investigates how scientific models and other representations that are not and are known not to be true of the phenomena they pertain to nonetheless figure in our understanding of those phenomena.

Jeremy Fantl is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary. He has published numerous articles in epistemology and is co-author, with Matthew McGrath, of Knowledge in an Uncertain World (Oxford University Press, 2009). He is also co-editor of Epistemology: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2008).

Richard Feldman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Rochester. His inter-ests are in epistemology and metaphysics. His publications include Reason and Argument (Prentice Hall, 1993; 2nd edition, 1999), Epistemology (Prentice Hall, Foundations of Philosophy Series, 2003), Evidentialism (with Earl Conee, Oxford University Press, 2004),

x Notes on Contributors

The Good, The Right, Life and Death (edited with Jason Raibly, Kris McDaniel, and Michael Zimmerman, Ashgate, 2006), and Disagreement (edited with Ted A. Warfield, Oxford 2010).

Richard Fumerton is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. He has published numerous articles in epistemology and is the author of Knowledge, Thought, and the Case for Dualism (Cambridge, forthcoming), Epistemology, (Blackwell, 2006), Realism and the Correspondence Theory of Truth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), Metaepistemology and Skepticism (Rowman & Littlefield, 1996), and Metaphysical and Epistemological Problems of Perception (University of Nebraska, 1985).

Carl Ginet is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Cornell University. He has published Knowledge, Perception, and Memory (D. Reidel, 1975) and On Action (Cambridge University Press, 1990) and articles on epistemology and free will and action. He is currently giving his thought primarily to the topic of a priori justification.

John Greco is the Leonard and Elizabeth Eslick Chair in Philosophy at Saint Louis University. His previous publications include Putting Skeptics in Their Place: TheNature of Skeptical Arguments and Their Role in Philosophical Inquiry (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Achieving Knowledge: A Virtue Theoretic Account of Epistemic Normativity (Cambridge University Press, 2010). He is also editor of The Oxford Handbook of Skepticism (Oxford University Press, 2008), Sosa and His Critics (Blackwell, 2004), The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology (1999), and Virtue Epistemology: Contemporary Readings (2012).

John Hawthorne is Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford, and the author of Knowledge and Lotteries (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Stephen Hetherington is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales. His monographs include Good Knowledge, Bad Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2001) and How To Know (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). His introductory books include Reality? Knowledge? Philosophy! (Edinburgh University Press, 2003), Self-Knowledge (Broadview, 2007), and Yes, But How Do You Know? (Broadview, 2009). His edited volumes include Epistemology Futures (Oxford University Press, 2006) and Epistemology: The Key Thinkers (Continuum, 2012).

Thomas Kelly is Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. His publications include The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement (Oxford Studies in Epistemology 1 2005), the entry on Evidence in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and, with Sarah McGrath, Is Reflective Equilibrium Enough? (Philosophical Perspectives 2010).

Peter Klein received his PhD from Yale University and has taught at Rutgers University since 1970. His work focuses on three issues in epistemology: the defeasibility theory ofknowledge, skepticism, and, more recently, infinitism. Recent publications in each of the areas include, What Makes Knowledge the Most Highly Prized Type of Belief? in Sensitivity Principle in Epistemology, ed. T. Black and K. Becker (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Epistemic Justification and the Limits of Pyrrhonism, in Pyrrhonism in

Notes on Contributors xi

Ancient, Modern, and Contemporary Philosophy, ed. Diego Machuca (Springer, 2011), and Infinitism, in The Continuum Companion to Epistemology, ed. A. Cullison (Continuum, 2012).

Jonathan L. Kvanvig is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. His primary work is in metaphysics and epistemology, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of logic, and his publications include The Intellectual Virtues and the Life of the Mind (1992), The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding (2003), The Knowability Paradox (2007), and Destiny and Deliberation (2011).

Matthew McGrath is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri. He has published articles in epistemology (on pragmatic encroachment, memory, and percep-tion) and in metaphysics (on material composition, identity over time, and truth). He and Jeremy Fantl are the authors of Knowledge in an Uncertain World (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Duncan Pritchard is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. His books include Epistemic Luck (Oxford University Press, 2005), The Nature and Value of Knowledge (with A. Millar and A. Haddock, Oxford University Press, 2010), and Epistemological Disjunctivism (Oxford University Press, 2012).

James Pryor is Associate Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He works in epistemology and philosophy of language and neighboring parts of the field.

Baron Reed is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He has published articles on skepticism, fallibilism, the nature of knowledge, and various other problems in epistemology.

Patrick Rysiew is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria, Canada. His primary research interest is in epistemology, including its points of intersection with certain issues in philosophy of language and psychology.

James Van Cleve formerly taught at Brown and is now Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He works in epistemology, metaphysics, and the history of early modern philosophy. He is currently working on a book entitled Problems from Reid (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), a sequel to his Problems from Kant (Oxford University Press, 1999).

Jonathan Vogel is Professor of Philosophy at Amherst College. His research is primarily in epistemology, but he also works in the history of philosophy and the philosophy of mind. He is the author of Skepticism and Knowledge of the External World (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

Roger White is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests span traditional and formal epistemology and philosophy of science. He has published articles on perceptual justification, skepticism, induction, Bayesianism, disagreement, and debunking arguments.

xii Notes on Contributors

Timothy Williamson is the Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Identity and Discrimination (Blackwell, 1990), Vagueness (Routledge, 1994), Knowledge and Its Limits (Oxford University Press, 2000), The Philosophy of Philosophy (Blackwell, 2007), Modal Logic as Metaphysics (Oxford University Press, 2013), and numerous articles. Williamson on Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2009), edited by Patrick Greenough and Duncan Pritchard, contains 15 essays on his epistemology with his replies.

Linda Zagzebski is George Lynn Cross Research Professor and Kingfisher College Chair of the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at the University of Oklahoma. She has published extensively in epistemology, philosophy of religion, and a style of virtue ethics she calls exemplarist virtue theory. Her most recent book is Epistemic Authority: A Theory of Trust, Authority, and Autonomy in Belief (Oxford University Press, 2012). This book was written with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship (20102011). A book in progress on exemplarist virtue theory is supported by a grant from the Templeton Foundation.

Preface to the Second Edition

The second edition of Contemporary Debates in Epistemology contains opposing essays on five new topics: the analyzability of knowledge and how to do episte-mology, pragmatic encroachment, the relation between knowledge and intellectually virtuous motives, the relation between knowledge and luck, and evidential slack. These essays can be found in Chapters 1, 4, 6, 7, and 12. The inclusion of these new chapters made it necessary to drop two debates from the first edition: one on conceptual content in perceptual experience, the other on epistemic responsibility. We have also added three new essays to the debate on immediate justification (Chapter9) and two additional essays to the debate on justification and coherence (Chapter 10). Nine of the first editions topics have been retained, so the second edition contains debates on altogether 14 chapters.

Significantly updated and enlarged, we believe that the second edition will, even more so than the first, be essential and fascinating reading to fellow epistemologists, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates. We wish to thank the contributors for debating each other vigorously and with sophistication, Travis Gilmore for proof-reading the manuscript, and Jeff Dean, Lindsay Bourgeois, and Jennifer Bray at Wiley-Blackwell for their invaluable assistance in putting this volume together.

Matthias SteupJohn Turri1

Ernest Sosa

1JTs work on this volume was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the British Academy, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Character Project at Wake Forest University and the John Templeton Foundation (neither of which necessarily endorses any opinion expressed here), and an Ontario Early Researcher Award.