Abstract

The notion that epistemoIogy can be naturalized by advertence to areas of the sociaI sciences other than psychoIogy---by employment of sociolinguistics, for exampIe---is supported by three lines of argument. The first asks us to note that sociolinguistics provides information that wouId heIp us delineate the constraints of the process of epistemic justification as engaged in by a speaker/listener. The second asks us to take into account the socioIogy of Ianguage w ork of Erving Goffman, who has written extensiveIy on “face-saving” strategies and other non-verbaI devices. The third repeats a constructed naturaIized justificatory set from previous work in epistemoIogy and asks us to envision this set with riders from Goffmanian theory. It is concluded that naturalized epistemoIogy can and shouId draw from many areas of the sociaI sciences.