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dbswanson's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a basic primer in epistemology and addresses the following issues: 1)What Is Epistemology? 2)What Is Knowledge? 3) Where Does Knowledge Come From? 4)What Is Truth, and How Do We Find It? 5) What Are Inferences, and How Do They Work? 6) What Do We Perceive? 7)Do We Need Justification? 8)What Is Virtue Epistemology? 9)Do We Have Revelation?, and 10) How Certain Can We Be?
The book is well written and argued which makes for a great introduction to the field of epistemology. I believe that it accomplishes its goal as a basic primer and has many helpful definitions and discussions on the pros and cons of varying approaches resulting in argument for the inference to the best explanation. I wish they would have added a concluding chapter on how this all fits together as a model for knowledge.
The book is well written and argued which makes for a great introduction to the field of epistemology. I believe that it accomplishes its goal as a basic primer and has many helpful definitions and discussions on the pros and cons of varying approaches resulting in argument for the inference to the best explanation. I wish they would have added a concluding chapter on how this all fits together as a model for knowledge.
steveinadelaide's review against another edition
3.0
Well... I'm going against the trend to score this book high because, while it's a reasonable introduction to epistemology, the authors' self-confessed Christian bias is its greatest weakness. When the authors stay away from areas not particularly contentious from a Christian perspective (whatever that is, given the diversity of Christian perspectives) it's reasonably balanced in presenting various options in response to the questions the book addresses. And the authors definitely try to be fair. However, when the book gets to the question of divine revelation, it is inadequate in my opinion. The authors briefly touch on the issue of other religions claiming to have supernatural revelation, but they very quickly move to a narrow Christian focus which describes a common apologetic argument in defence of the authority of the Christian scriptures. There are very significant and contentious issues around a claim that one religion has direct knowledge from “God”. Maybe I'm asking too much of an essentially Evangelical survey of epistemology. My hope is that any reader, including Christian readers, will also explore some of these issues by seeking out introductory texts on epistemology that come from a variety of views.
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