Epistemic instrumentalism explained /
Do epistemic requirements vary along with facts about what promotes agents' well-being? Epistemic instrumentalists say 'yes' and thereby earn a lot of contempt. This contempt is a mistake on two counts. First, it is incorrectly based. The reasons typically given for it are misguided....
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Routledge,
[2023].
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| Series: | Routledge studies in epistemology.
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| Summary: | Do epistemic requirements vary along with facts about what promotes agents' well-being? Epistemic instrumentalists say 'yes' and thereby earn a lot of contempt. This contempt is a mistake on two counts. First, it is incorrectly based. The reasons typically given for it are misguided. Second, it fails to distinguish between first- and second-order epistemic instrumentalism; and, it happens, only the former is contemptible. In this book, Nathaniel P. Sharadin argues for rejecting epistemic instrumentalism as a first-order view not because it suffers extensional failures, but because it suffers explanatory ones. By contrast, he argues that epistemic instrumentalism offers a natural, straightforward explanation of why being epistemically correct matters. What emerges is a second-order instrumentalist explanation for epistemic authority that is neutral between competing first-order epistemic theories. This neutrality is an advantage. But, drawing on work from cognitive science and psychology, Sharadin argues that instrumentalists can abandon that neutrality in order to adopt a view he calls epistemic ecologism. Epistemic Instrumentalism Explained will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in epistemology, ethics and philosophy of mind. |
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| Physical Description: | 199 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780367558802 0367558807 9780367561833 0367561832 |