http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
a history of our epistemic ideals and illusions
After Certainty offers a reconstruction of the history of epistemology, understood as a series of changing expectations about the cognitive ideal that we might hope to achieve in this world. Pasnau ranges widely over philosophy from Aristotle to the 17th century, and examines in some detail the rise of science as an autonomous discipline.
Cover -- After Certainty: A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions -- Copyright -- Preface -- Contents -- Lecture One: The Epistemic Ideal -- Introduction -- AristotleÂś Ideal Theory -- Normative Ideals -- The Breakdown of Aristotelian Essentialism -- Trading Depth for Precision -- Epistemology in the Ascendant -- Lecture Two: Evident Certainties -- Lexicology -- DescartesÂś Ideal Theory -- The Ideal of Certainty -- Degrees of Evidentness -- Proportioned Belief -- The Limits of Knowledge -- Lecture Three: The Sensory Domain
Sensory IdealsDomains of Privilege -- AristotleÂś Relationalism -- Aristotelian Realism -- The Quantitative Turn -- DescartesÂś Three Paths -- The Ideal of Fidelity -- Lecture Four: Ideas and Illusions -- How Ideas Become Objects -- Introspection -- The Argument from Illusion -- Disjunctivism -- AuriolÂś Apparent Being -- OckhamÂś Simply Unmediated View -- AutrecourtÂś Platonism -- The Quest for Fidelity -- Lecture Five: The Privileged Now -- The Anselmian Glance -- Many Thoughts at Once -- Evidential Force -- DescartesÂś Privileged Now
MemoryÂś TestimonyDisprivileging the Present Self -- Lecture Six: Deception and Hope -- God the Deceiver -- God the Deceived -- The Dismal Verdict -- HumeÂś Quietism -- Believing Hopefully -- Notes -- Notes to Lecture One -- Introduction -- The Place of Epistemology -- Platoâ#x80;#x99;s Limited Influence -- Aristotleâ#x80;#x99;s Ideal Theory -- Normative Ideals -- The Epistemic Ideal after Aristotle -- Nonideal Cases -- Ordinary Language -- On Ideal Theory -- Calibrating the Ideal -- The Breakdown of Aristotelian Essentialism -- The History of â#x80;#x98;Knowledgeâ#x80;#x99
Hobbesâ#x80;#x99;s Various Epistemic PositionsLockeâ#x80;#x99;s Pessimism regarding the Ideal -- Causal Understanding -- Trading Depth for Precision -- Relinquishing Causal Understanding -- Causal Understanding in Newton -- The Ideal of Precision -- Precision versus Depth -- Developments after Newton -- Epistemology in the Ascendant -- Notes to Lecture Two -- Lexicology -- Descartesâ#x80;#x99;s Ideal Theory -- The Ideal of Certainty -- Certainty in Antiquity -- Certainty in Classical Arabic Philosophy -- Subjective versus Objective Certainty -- Degrees of Certainty
Higher Order CertaintyCausal Understanding and Certainty -- Certainty in the Seventeenth Century -- Degrees of Evidentness -- From Certainty to Probability -- The Meanings of â#x80;#x98;Probableâ#x80;#x99; -- Evidentness -- Buridanâ#x80;#x99;s Three Degrees -- Proportioned Belief -- Moral Certainty -- Recalibrating the Ideal -- The Banner Raised for Certainty -- Certainty Conditionalized -- The Principle of Proportionality -- The Limits of Knowledge -- â#x80;#x98;Knowledgeâ#x80;#x99; -- Fixing the Boundaries of Knowledge -- Knowledge as Moral Certainty -- Belief and Religion
Includes bibliographical references and index.