Sources of Knowledge : On the Concept of a Rational Capacity for Knowledge / / Andrea Kern

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910154633403321
• Autore: Kern Andrea
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge, MA : , : Harvard University Press, , [2017]; ©2017
• ISBN: 0-674-97400-X; 0-674-97394-1
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (304 pages)
• Altri autori (Persone): SmythDaniel
• Disciplina: 121/.3
• Soggetti: Error; Knowledge, Theory of; Reason
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: An earlier version of this work was originally published as Quellen des Wissens: Zum Begriff vernünft iger Erkenntnisfähigkeiten,© Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 2006
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: “But We Can Always Err!” -- Part One: Knowledge and Reason -- Introduction -- I. Finite Knowledge -- II. Finite Justification -- Part Two: The Primacy of Knowledge -- Introduction -- III. Doubting Knowledge -- IV. The Dilemma of Epistemology -- V. What Are Grounds? -- Part Three: The Nature of Knowledge -- Introduction -- VI. Rational Capacities -- VII. Rational Capacities for Knowledge -- VIII. Rational Capacities and Circumstances -- Part Four: The Teleology of Knowledge -- Introduction -- IX. The Teleology of Rational Capacities -- X. Knowledge and Practice -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: How can human beings, who are liable to error, possess knowledge? The skeptic finds this question impossible to answer. If we can err, then it seems the grounds on which we believe do not rule out that we are wrong. Most contemporary epistemologists agree with the skeptic that we can never believe on grounds that exclude error. Sources of Knowledge moves beyond this predicament by demonstrating that some major problems of contemporary philosophy have their roots in ; the lack of a metaphysical category that is fundamental to our self-understanding: the category of a rational capacity for knowledge. The author argues that we can disarm skeptical doubt by conceiving knowledge as an act of a rational capacity. This enables us to appreciate human fallibility without falling into skepticism, for it allows us to understand how we can form beliefs about the world on grounds that exclude error. Knowledge is a fundamental capacity of the human mind. Human beings, as such, are knowers. In this way, the book seeks to understand knowledge from within our self-understanding as knowers. It develops a metaphysics of the human mind as existing through knowledge of itself, which knowledge--as the human being is finite--takes the form of a capacity. Regaining the concept of a rational capacity for knowledge, Kern makes a powerful and original contribution to philosophy that reinvigorates the tradition of Aristotle and Kant--thinkers whose relevance for contemporary epistemology has yet to be fully appreciated.--