Description
Book SynopsisFrom Plato to Quine, this text provides a collection of the essential, classic readings in the theory of knowledge. It contains 20 historical contributions, from the earliest times to Wittgenstein and from China to the USA. Several of the texts address the problem of scepticism.
Table of Contents1. Plato,
Republic, 475e-480a and 506d-518c.
2. Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Book I, 1-4 & 31 and Book II, 19.
3. Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Book I, 1-16 & 18-27.
4. The Book of Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2.
5. The Nyaya-Sutras, from Book I, Chapter I & Book II, Chapter 1, with Vatsyayana Commentary.
6. Nagarjuna, Vigrahavyavartani, 5-6, 30-51.
7. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy I-III and Objections and Replies (Selections).
8.(A) John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book I, Chapter 2, 1-24.(B) G. W. Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding, Preface.
9. David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 12.
10. Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, Essay 6, Chapter 5.
11. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction.
(2nd Edition), I-VI.
12. Friedrich Nietzsche, On truth and lies in a nonmoral sense.
13. Charles S. Pierce, Some consequences of four incapacities (excerpt) and the fixation of belief.
14. Edmund Husserl, The Idea of Phenomenology, Lectures 1-2.
15. Bertrand Russell, Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description.
16. Moritz Schlick, On the foundation of knowledge.
17. Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty, 1-42, 91-105, 192-284.
