Knowledge and Evidence

Paul Moser’s book defends what has been an unfashionable view in recent epistemology: the foundationalist account of knowledge and justification. Since the time of Plato philosophers have wondered what exactly knowledge is. This book develops a new account of perceptual knowledge which specifies the exact sense in which knowledge has foundations. The author argues that experiential foundations are indeed essential to perceptual knowledge, and he explains what knowledge requires beyond justified true beliefs. In challenging prominent sceptical claims that we have no justified beliefs about the external world, the book outlines a theory of rational belief.

• ‘ … a powerful antidote to the naive but morally and intellectually damaging ‘relativism’, that pervades much contemporary social and literary theory, but is much more than that.’ Times Higher Education Supplement • Paul Moser is author of Rationality in Action (1990)

Acknowedgments; Introduction; 1. Conditions for propositional knowledge; 2. Minimal epistemic reasons; 3. Justifying epistemic reasons; 4. Foundationalism and some alternatives; 5. Procedural epistemic rationality; 6. Propositional knowledge; References; Index.

‘Moser has produced a foundationalist account of justification and knowledge … that in some respects is superior to anything else in the literature.’

– W. Alston, Syracuse University