Virtue Epistemology and the Analysis of Knowledge: Toward a Non-Reductive Model

Description

This book centers on two dominant trends within contemporary epistemology: first, the dissatisfaction with the project of analyzing knowledge in terms of necessary and jointly sufficient conditions and, second, the surging popularity of virtue-theoretic approaches to knowledge. Church argues that the Gettier Problem, the primary reason for abandoning the reductive analysis project, cannot viably be solved, and that prominent approaches to virtue epistemology fail to solve the Gettier Problem precisely along the lines his diagnosis predicts. Such an outcome motivates Church to explore a better way forward: non-reductive virtue epistemology. In so doing, he makes room for virtue epistemologies that are not only able to endure what he sees as inevitable developments in 21st-century epistemology, but also able to contribute positively to debates and discussions across the discipline and beyond.

Ian M. Church is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hillsdale College, USA.

Virtue Epistemology and the Analysis of Knowledge offers a distinctive line on virtue epistemology, and in the process covers many of the core topics of contemporary epistemology. This insightful book will be required reading for anyone hoping to keep abreast of the latest work in epistemology. * Duncan Pritchard, UC Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of California, USA *