On regulating what is known: A way to social epistemology

Synthese 73 (1):145 - 183 (1987)
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Abstract

This paper lays the groundwork for normative-yet-naturalistic social epistemology. I start by presenting two scenarios for the history of epistemology since Kant, one in which social epistemology is the natural outcome and the other in which it represents a not entirely satisfactory break with classical theories of knowledge. Next I argue that the current trend toward naturalizing epistemology threatens to destroy the distinctiveness of the sociological approach by presuming that it complements standard psychological and historical approaches. I then try to reassert, in Comtean fashion, the epistemologist's credentials in regulating knowledge production. Finally, I consider how social epistemology may have something exciting and relevant to say about contemporary debates in the theory of knowledge.

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Steve Fuller
University of Warwick

References found in this work

Ontological relativity and other essays.Willard Van Orman Quine (ed.) - 1969 - New York: Columbia University Press.
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.Richard Rorty - 1979 - Princeton University Press.
Brainstorms.Daniel C. Dennett - 1978 - MIT Press.
Epistemology and cognition.Alvin I. Goldman - 1986 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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