Knowledge

Introductions to the theory of knowledge are plentiful, but noneintroduce students to the most recent debates that exercisecontemporary philosophers. Ian Evans and Nicholas D. Smith aim tochange that. Their book guides the reader through the standardtheories of knowledge while simultaneously using these as aspringboard to introduce current debates. Each chapter concludeswith a "Current Trends" section pointing the reader tothe best literature dominating current philosophical discussion.These include: the puzzle of reasonable disagreement; the so-called"problem of easy knowledge"; the intellectual virtues;and new theories in the philosophy of language relating toknowledge.
Chapters include discussions of skepticism, the truth condition,belief and acceptance, justification, internalism versusexternalism, epistemic evaluation, and epistemic contextualism.Evans and Smith do not merely offer a review of existing theoriesand debates; they also offer a novel theory that takes seriouslythe claim that knowledge is not unique to humans. Surveying currentscientific literature in animal ethology, they discover surprisingsophistication and diversity in non-human cognition. In their finalanalysis the authors provide a unified account of knowledge thatmanages to respect and explain this diversity. They argue thatanimals know when they make appropriate use of the cognitiveprocesses available to animals of that kind, in environments withinwhich those processes are veridically well-adapted.
Knowledge is a lively and accessible volume, ideal forundergraduate and post-graduate students. It is also set to sparkdebate among scholars for its novel approaches to traditionaltopics and its thoroughgoing commitment to naturalism.