The epistemology of testimony has experienced a growth in interest over the last twenty-five years that has been matched by few, if any, other areas of philosophy. Testimony: A Philosophical Introduction provides an epistemology of testimony that surveys this rapidly growing research area while incorporating a discussion of relevant empirical work from social and developmental psychology, as well as from the interdisciplinary study of knowledge-creation in groups. The past decade has seen a number of scholarly monographs on the epistemology of testimony, but there is a dearth of books that survey the current field. This book fills that gap, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of all major competing theories. All chapters conclude with Suggestions for Further Reading and Discussion Questions.
1. Introduction. 2. Evidence From Social Psychology. 3. Non-Presumptivism. 4. Presumptivism. 5. Assurance Theory. 6. Anti-Individualism
Biography
Joseph Shieber is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Lafayette College. He previously taught philosophy at Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Connecticut College. His research is primarily in the areas of epistemology, philosophy of language, and history of philosophy.
"This is an exemplary introduction to the philosophical issues raised by testimony. It is comprehensive, clearly written, and displays a keen sense of the cutting-edge ideas in this field. Anyone interested in testimony will profit from reading this book."
Duncan Pritchard, University of Edinburgh, UK
"Shieber's book is a great contribution to discussions in the epistemology of testimony. It is unique both in including a good deal of the social psychology literature on our reception of others' say-so, as well as in introducing each theoretical approach with interesting and provocative cases from real life. This book should be of interest as much to the seasoned scholar as the student."
Sanford Goldberg, Northwestern University, USA
