Jennifer Lackey

We often talk about groups believing, knowing and testifying. Epistemic claims of this sort are of significant consequence, given that they bear on the moral and legal responsibilities of collective entities. A team of leading experts in the field present new, cutting-edge theories, insights and approaches in collective epistemology.

Essays in Collective Epistemology

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.

Testimony as a Source of Knowledge

Learning from Words

Ernest Sosa

The Epistemology of Testimony

Recounts the life of Jacques Cartier, who explored the Saint Lawrence River, and places it in the context of the search for the Northwest Passage, the beginnings of New France, and seafaring life in the sixteenth century.

Exploring the St. Lawrence River

Jacques Cartier

Leading philosophers bring the tools of contemporary epistemology to bear on some of the most pressing social and political questions facing us as agents in the world today. This volume explores a diverse range of topics as they relate to epistemology under broad themes including injustice, race, feminism, sexual consent, and the internet.

Jennifer Lackey

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