In this book William G. Lycan offers an epistemology of philosophy
itself, a partial method for philosophical inquiry. The epistemology
features three ultimate sources of justified philosophical belief.
First, common sense, in a carefully restricted sense of the term-the
sorts of contingent propositions Moore defended against idealists and
skeptics. Second, the deliverances of well confirmed science. Third
and more fundamentally, intuitions about cases in a carefully
specified sense of that term. The first half of On Evidence in
Philosophy expounds a version of Moore's method and applies it to each
of several issues. This version is shown to resist all the standard
objections to Moore; most of them do not even apply. It is argued, in
Chapters 5 and 6, that philosophical method is far less powerful than
most have taken it to be. In particular, deductive argument can
accomplish very little, and hardly ever is an opposing position
refuted except by common sense or by science. The final two chapters
defend the evidential status of intuitions and the Goodmanian method
of reflective equilibrium; it is argued that philosophy always and
everywhere depends on them. The method is then set within a more
general explanatory-coherentist epistemology, which is shown to resist
standard forms of skepticism. In sum, William G. Lycan advocates a
picture of philosophy as a very wide explanatory reflective
equilibrium incorporating common sense, science, and our firmest
intuitions on any topic-and nothing more, not ever.
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780192565266
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic UK
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter