The development of an epistemology that explains how science and art
embody and convey understanding. Philosophy valorizes truth, holding
that there can never be epistemically good reasons to accept a known
falsehood, or to accept modes of justification that are not truth
conducive. How can this stance account for the epistemic standing of
science, which unabashedly relies on models, idealizations, and
thought experiments that are known not to be true? In True Enough,
Catherine Elgin argues that we should not assume that the inaccuracy
of models and idealizations constitutes an inadequacy. To the
contrary, their divergence from truth or representational accuracy
fosters their epistemic functioning. When effective, models and
idealizations are, Elgin contends, felicitous falsehoods that
exemplify features of the phenomena they bear on. Because works of art
deploy the same sorts of felicitous falsehoods, she argues, they also
advance understanding. Elgin develops a holistic epistemology that
focuses on the understanding of broad ranges of phenomena rather than
knowledge of individual facts. Epistemic acceptability, she maintains,
is a matter not of truth-conduciveness, but of what would be
reflectively endorsed by the members of an idealized epistemic
community—a quasi-Kantian realm of epistemic ends.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780262341387
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Random House Publishing Services
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter