Product Description
Designed as a text for advanced philosophy students, this book introduces the reader to the fundamental issues and approaches in the field of epistemology. The author provides a critical survey and assessment of all major competing theories of knowledge - foundations theories, coherence theories, direct realism, reliabilism and probabilism. Pollock clarifies the dinstinguishing features of each theory and analyzes the arguments supporting or refuting them. He makes a strong case for a particular theory - the nondoxastic internalist theory of direct realism - as the most logically defensible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction to epistemology.
In the second edition of this volume, John L. Pollock and Joseph Cruz do a workmanlike job at a double task: (a) presenting a fairly comprehensive overview of contemporary epistemological theories (particularly in thebroad area where more-or-less-analytical philosophy meets cognitivescience), and (b) developing and defending an original theory of theirown.

(Note: Pollock has been working in epistemology for thirty-odd yearsand Cruz is a recent Ph.D.; I take it that Pollock was probably the leaderin the work. I also don't happen to recall whether Pollock's was the onlyname on the first edition. Nevertheless the theory propounded in thisvolume marks important changes from Pollock's earlier views as presented inhis own previous publications. At any rate I shall continue to refer to thetheory developed herein as "theirs.")

The presentation isorganized very well and developed with the utmost fairness. The reader isintroduced to the field of peistemology and taken on a guided tour of thebasic classes of epistemological theory.

The authors begin by dividingtheories of knowledge into two overarching classes: "doxastic"theories (which hold that what one epistemologically ought to believe is afunction solely of one's current beliefs) and "nondoxastic"theories (which think some consideration _other_ than one's current beliefsis relevant to the question of what one ought to believe next). Having madethis distinction, the authors go on to discuss foundationalism andcoherentism as "doxastic" theories, finding what they regard asinsurmountable problems with each. (I disagree, by the way, but that isneither here nor there.)

They regard their own theory (which they go onto develop at length) as "nondoxastic," a view at which they areable to arrive by distinguishing between a perceptual state itself, on theone hand, and beliefs _about_ such states, on the other. Here we might seethe glimmer of a possible problem: for our authors, a perceptual state isnot itself a belief state (at least, not solely).

But that problem palesin comparison with another of the authors' main contentions (one which theythemselves recognize as all but heretical): that in order to be takenseriously, a theory of knowledge should be implementable as a computeralogrithm. However, "heretical" or not, the authors do a fine jobof defending their thesis, devoting several sections (e.g. "How tobuild a person") to a project dubbed OSCAR in which they try . . .well, to build a person.

At any rate, whether one agrees or disagreeswith their conclusion, the volume is a terrific introduction to the currentstate of epistemology -- with an absolutely outstanding bibliography intothe bargain. If you're interested in the field, don't miss this finecontribution to it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Some interesting pictures.
I have not read this book yet - I bought it for it's pictures.It has pictures of some interesting planting combinations and hardscape applications.It contains chapters on Garden History, overviews of various styles (cottage, oriental, wild, parterre), "sense of place" (entries vs. landmarks vs. contemplation vs. workplace, etc.), elements of the garden (paving, light, water, structures, plant palette), a chapter w/ summaries of 15 diff. designers and a chapter on garden wisdom (planning, basics, revision & restoration).The book is well organized and designed and, again, has good pictures.It also has information on sources for plants and materials but since the book is from 1984 it is most likely completely outdated.Not essential but still quite nice. ... Read more