Mainstream and Formal Epistemology

Mainstream and Formal Epistemology provides the first, easily accessible, yet erudite and original analysis of the meeting point between mainstream and formal theories of knowledge. These two strands of thinking have traditionally proceeded in isolation from one another, but in this book, Vincent F. Hendricks brings them together for a systematic comparative treatment. He demonstrates how mainstream and formal epistemology may significantly benefit from one another, paving the way for a new unifying program of ‘plethoric’ epistemology. His book will both define and further the debate between philosophers from two very different sides of the epistemological spectrum.

• Provides the first systematic analysis of the meeting point between mainstream and formal epistemology • Provides a highway for new contacts between philosophy and its broader intellectual environment • Applies important work in logic and computability theory to fundamental epistemological questions

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Priming the pump; 3. Mainstream epistemology; 4. Counterfactual epistemology; 5. Contextual epistemology; 6. Logical epistemology; 7. Computational epistemology; 8. Modal operator epistemology; 9. ‘Plethoric’ epistemology; Bibliography.

‘Mainstream and Formal Epistemology is a very timely tour de force, bringing together mainstream epistemology and the modern logic-computational tradition in knowledge, learning, and agency. Using the unifying concept of ‘forcing’, it presents a clear and impassioned analysis of both static and dynamic aspects of cognition. … [T]he author shows us a highway for new contacts between philosophy and its broader intellectual environment.’

– Johann van Benthem, University of Amsterdam and Stanford University

‘… Vincent Hendricks has done the philosophical community a major service by bringing several such important lines of thought together and by trying to synthesize them.’

– Jaakko Hintikka, Boston University