Readings in Epistemology

This volume contains readings in the philosophy of human knowledge. Selections from Plato's Theaetetus, Meno, and Republic, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Metaphysics, Sextus Empiricus' Outlines of Pyrrhonism and Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, and Thomas Aquinas' Disputed Questions on Truth represent the early period. The early modern period begins with selections from Descartes' Discourse on Method and Meditations, followed by selections from Spinoza's Ethics, and Leibniz' Discourse on Metaphysics, New Essays on the Understanding, and Monadology. Modern Empiricism is addressed through selections from Locke's Essay and Berkeley's Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, culminating in the Academic Skepticism of David Hume (selections from his Enquiry). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century epistemology are covered through selection from Kant's Critique, Peirce's Fixation of Belief and James' What Pragmatism Means, and ends with portions of Moore's Refutation of Idealism and Ayer's Language, Truth, and Logic.