Testimony is an invaluable source of knowledge. We rely on the reports
of those around us for everything from the ingredients in our food and
medicine to the identity of our family members. Recent years have seen
an explosion of interest in the epistemology of testimony. Despite the
multitude of views offered, a single thesis is nearly universally
accepted: testimonial knowledge is acquired through the process of
transmission from speaker to hearer. In this book, Jennifer Lackey
shows that this thesis is false and, hence, that the literature on
testimony has been shaped at its core by a view that is fundamentally
misguided. She then defends a detailed alternative to this conception
of testimony: whereas the views currently dominant focus on the
epistemic status of what speakers believe, Lackey advances a theory
that instead centers on what speakers say. The upshot is that,
strictly speaking, we do not learn from one another's beliefs - we
learn from one another's words. Once this shift in focus is in place,
Lackey goes on to argue that, though positive reasons are necessary
for testimonial knowledge, testimony itself is an irreducible
epistemic source. This leads to the development of a theory that gives
proper credence to testimony's epistemologically dual nature: both the
speaker and the hearer must make a positive epistemic contribution to
testimonial knowledge. The resulting view not only reveals that
testimony has the capacity to generate knowledge, but it also gives
appropriate weight to our nature as both socially indebted and
individually rational creatures. The approach found in this book will,
then, represent a radical departure from the views currently
dominating the epistemology of testimony, and thus is intended to
reshape our understanding of the deep and ubiquitous reliance we have
on the testimony of those around us.
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Testimony as a Source of Knowledge
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780191614569
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic UK
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter