Readings in formal epistemology: sourcebook

摘要

When I was an undergraduate student decades ago, one of the courses Ⅰ took to meet the required number of upper division credit hours in philosophy was on epistemology, the study of knowledge: How is it acquired? What is the structure of knowledge? How is knowledge communicated? How does knowledge relate to belief? How is the claim of knowledge or belief justified? The approach was classical: the study of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, and John Locke, and other great thinkers. The importance of epistemology in philosophy is that it is inextricably coupled with the study of metaphysics and ontology.