Knowledge and the State of Nature

In this illuminating study Craig argues that the standard practice of analyzing the concept of knowledge has radical defects--arbitrary restriction of the subject matter and risky theoretical presuppositions. He proposes a new approach similar to the "state-of-nature" method found in political theory, building the concept up from a hypothesis about its social function and the needs it fulfills. Shedding light on much that philosophers have written about knowledge, its analysis and the obstacles to its analysis, and the debate over skepticism, this compelling work will be of interest to students and scholars of epistemology and the philosophy of language.

First sentence: The standard approach to questions about the concept of knowledge has for some time consisted in attempts to analyse the everyday meaning of the word 'know' and its cognates.

Year

1990

Language

English

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Editions

2

Pages

184

ISBN

9780198238799

Data source: Wikidata