The Epistemology Page
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Keith DeRose,
Yale University
Dept. of Philosophy

My goal is to pull together some resources in epistemology. I have very limited time for maintaining this page, so it is bound to be very incomplete. Hopefully, though, there will be enough material here for the page to be somewhat useful to those interested in epistemology.

When I started using hit meters on this page, I became aware of the fact that this page gets a lot of internet traffic, much of it apparently from surfers who are referred here from Google searches, mainly on the term "epistemology." I suspect many of those surfers are looking for more basic information than I provide here.  Indeed, many are probably seeking a fairly basic answer to the question "What is epistemology?", and/or basic introductory material on what the main topics in the field are, while this page is intended as a research aid for those who already have a pretty good idea of what epistemology is.
So, for those looking for more basic information, see: What Is Epistemology?  A Brief Introduction to the Topic.

Also On-Line: Contextualism in Epistemology - A Bibliography
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Blog, hopelessly devoted to epistemology: Certain Doubts.


Contents:

1. Collections and anthologies
2. Some Epistemology courses with Syllabi/Information On-Line
3. Graduate Programs strong in epistemology and Epistemologists on the Move
4. Some Epistemologists and Some of Their Epistemological Publications (since 1995)
          A . C . F . H . K . M . R . T .
5. Other Epistemology sites
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1. Collections and anthologies

(This section has gotten stale; I hope to update it in the not-too-distant future.  That or just delete it.)

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Around the turn of the century (and of the millennium), a few collections of epistemology papers came out, which provided excellent entries into the field.  These collections are now several years old, and so no longer provide such a cutting-edge-recent introductions to what's going on now in epistemology.  But keeping in mind that one will have to also investigate what's been happening in the last few years, these are still useful enough for students interested in the field that I will list them here.

-Philosophical Perspectives is an annual which is on a different topic every year; 1999 was epistemology's turn (vol. 13).  This volume has many papers, many of them by the "usual suspects" in the field.  A student who wanted to get up on the recent state of epistemology (at least as of 1999) would do well to start with this volume, find some topics that interested her, and then trace the trail of citations back to find other literature on those topics.  Blackwell Publishers now includes Philosophical Perspectives as a supplement to their journal Noûs.  To view the contents or to order, see Blackwell's site here, or you can order through Amazon.com by clicking here.

-Another good entry to the field is the Blackwell Guide to Epistemology (1999).  The editors of that volume, John Greco and Ernest Sosa, commisioned various epistemologists to write seventeen "survey articles," each one on a major area of epistemology.  But in addition to describing the current state of each sub-field, each article also sought to advance the topic.  The description on the Blackwell web page: "Each essay in the volume incorporates background material serving to clarify the history and logic of the relevant topic; as well as new material by a leading author in the field."  (Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com)

-Another collection of recent work in epistemology is the Epistemology volume (volume 5) of the Proceedings of 20th World Congress of Philosophy.

-Matthias Steup and Ernest Sosa eds., Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (Blackwell, 2005) is an excellent resource, consisting of "original essays on some of the most hotly debated issues in the field. Is knowledge contextual? Can skepticism be refuted? Can beliefs be justified through coherence alone? Is justified belief responsible belief?" (from Blackwell's description).  Though I've read very little of the book yet, the line-up of issues and of contributors looks super.  The following philosophers debate the following issues:
-Fred Dretske and John Hawthorne: "Is Knowledge Closed under Known Entailment?"
-Earl Conee and Stewart Cohen: "Is Knowledge Contextual?"
-Jonathan Vogel and Richard Fumerton: "Can Skepticism Be Refuted?"
-Laurence BonJour and Michael Devitt: "Is There A Priori Knowledge?"
-Peter Klein and Carl Ginet: "Is Infinitism the Solution to the Regress Problem?"
-Catherine Z. Elgin and James Van Cleve: "Can Beliefs Be Justified through Coherence Alone?"
-James Pryor and Michael Williams: "Is There Immediate Justification?"
-Bill Brewer and Alex Byrne: "Does Perceptual Experience Have Conceptual Content?"
-John Greco and Richard Feldman: "Is Justification Internal?"
-Jonathan Kvanvig and Marian David: "Is Truth the Primary Epistemic Goal?"
-Richard Foley and Nicholas Wolterstorff: "Is Justified Belief Responsible Belief?"

-Vol. 10 (2000) of Philosophical Issues is on Skepticism.

-Vol. 14 (2004) of  Philosophical Issues is on epistemology generally.

And here are some not-so-recent-but not-all-that-old collections:

(OK, OK, I know that last one is now older than many current undergrads.  But one's standards for "not-all-that-old" get pretty lax as one ages.  Hey, isn't it about time for Midwest Studies to do epistemology again?)

The above were all collections of previously unpublished papers.  The following are recent (you'll be hard-pressed to find undergrads younger than these collections) anthologies of previously published epistemology papers.

Many teachers, looking for a single book of contemporary writings for an epistemology course, will find that Bernecker & Dretske and Sosa & Kim are their finalists.  Comparing the table of contents of those two anthologies (for the Bernecker & Dretske anthology, there is a link to the table of contents on the right side of the OUP page for the book), the difference that leaps out first is that the Bernecker & Dretske collection has three pieces by Dretske (plus one by Bernecker), but absolutely no Sosa, while the Sosa & Kim anthology contains two papers by Sosa, but absolutely none by Dretske.  But there are many other differences.  Each instructor should examine the tables of contents, and make her own choice.  Those who want an all-in-one anthology for a general epistemology course that contains historical as well as recent writings, in addition to Pojman's antholology, might also want to check out Huemer's collection (follow the above link for a list of contents), which, despite its title, does include selections by Plato, Sextus, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Reid, Kant, Russell, Moore, Ayer, Carnap, Quine, and others.

Finally, teachers of introductory epistemology classes often like to teach from an epistemology textbook.  As it happens, I haven't taught a beginning epistemology class in quite a few years, and even when I did teach such a course, I taught from an anthology, so I can't really speak to which are the better textbooks.  But here are some that have been suggested to me (hopefully, I'll be able to get links up to them soon):

  • Robert Audi, Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2003).
  • Laurence BonJour, Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses (Rowman and Littlefield, 2002).
  • Jonathan Dancy, An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (Blackwell, 1985).
  • Richard Feldman, Epistemology (Prentice Hall, 2003).
  • Stephen Hetherington, Knowledge Puzzles: An Introduction to Epistemology (Westview Press, 1996).
  • Charles Landesman, An Introduction to Epistemology (Blackwell, 1997).
  • Keith Lehrer, Theory of Knowledge (Westview Press, 1990).
  • Adam Morton, A Guide Through the Theory of Knowledge, 3rd ed. (Blackwell, 2002).
  • Louis P. Pojman, What Can We Know: An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge, 2nd ed., (Wadsworth, 2001).
  • John Pollack, Joseph Cruz, Contemporary Theories of Knowledge, 2nd Ed. (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999).
  • Matthias Steup, An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (Prentice-Hall, 1996).

  • 2. Some Epistemology courses with Syllabi / Helpful Information On-Line:

     
    M. Bergmann Purdue University Phil. 432 Theory of Knowledge Spring 2006
    T. Black University of Utah Phil. 5300/6300. Epistemology Spring 2003
    D. Braun
    University of Rochester
    Phil. 516.
    Selected Topics in Philosophy of Language: Knowing That, Knowing Who, and Context
    Fall 2005
    J. Comesaña
    University of Wisconsin, Madison
    Phil. 903.
    Epistemology Seminar: Skepticism and The Semantics of Knowledge Attributions
    Fall 2006
    T. Cross, K. DeRose
    Yale University
    Phil. 702.
    Safety and Sensitivity of Beliefs
    Spring 2006
    K. DeRose Yale University Phil. 441/641 Epistemology Spring 1999
    K. DeRose Yale University Phil. 704 Contextualism vs. Invariantism in Epistemology Spring 2004
    K. DeRose
    Yale University
    Phil. 300.
    Skepticism
    Fall 2006
    C.E.M. Dunlap
    University of Michigan, Flint
    Phil.  482
    Contemporary Issues in Epistemology
    Spring 2005?
    C. Elgin
    Harvard University
    Phil. 159
    Epistemology
    Fall 2005
    R. Feldman Universtiy of Rochester Phil. 243/443 Theory of Knowledge Fall 2002
    B. Fitelson
    University of California, Berkeley
    Phil. 148.
    Probability and Induction
    Spring 2005
    B. Fitelson and S. Roush
    University of California, Berkeley
    Phil. 290.
    Williamson's Knowledge and Its Limits
    Fall 2006
    T. Gendler
    Cornell University
    Phil. 361.
    Contemporary Epistemology
    Spring 2005
    P. Greenough
    University of St. Andrews
    Phil. PY4606.
    Contemporary Epistemology
    Fall 2005
    P. Greenough University of St. Andrews PY3001 Epistemology Fall 2003
    P. Greenough University of St. Andrews PY5102 Current Issues, Epistemology Spring 2004
    G. Harman Princeton University Phil. 539 Theory of Knowledge Spring 2003
    T. Horgan University of Arizona Phil. 441 Theory of Knowledge Spring 2004
    M. Huemer University of Colorado, Boulder Phil. 3340 (pdf doc) Epistemology Fall 2006
    J. Kvanvig University of Missouri Phil 4300 (pdf doc)
    Epistemology Winter 2006
    J. Lackey
    Northern Illinois University
    Phil. 311 (pdf doc)
    Problems of Knowledge
    Fall 2006
    J. Lackey
    Northern Illinois University
    Phil. 511 (pdf doc)
    Epistemology
    Spring 2005
    L. Loeb University of Michigan Phil. 389 History of Philosophy: 17th and 18th Centuries [History course, but with lots of epistemology] Winter 2003
    W. Lycan University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Phil. 477 Skepticism and Contextualism; Virtue Epistemology Spring 2002
    J. Lyons
    University of Arkansas
    Phil. 4203/5203 (pdf doc)
    Theory of Knowledge
    Fall 2006
    J. Pryor Harvard University Phil. 253 A Priori Knowledge Fall 2000
    J. Pryor Princeton University Phil. 313 Theory of Knowledge Spring 2004
    J. Pryor
    Princeton University
    Phil. 514
    Epistemology Seminar
    Spring 2004
    B. Rives
    Union College
    Phil. 367
    Skepticism
    Fall 2005
    J. Stanley University of Michigan (Stanley is now at Rutgers)
    Phil. 530 (word doc) Theory of Knowledge (skepticism, closure, contextualism, etc.) Spring 2004
    M. Tooley University of Colorado, Boulder Phil. 3340 Epistemology Fall 2001


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    3. Graduate Programs strong in epistemology -- updated April '06


    From time to time I am asked, mostly by philosophers who have an undergraduate student who is interested in going on to do graduate work in philosophy, which are the best departments to go to for epistemology.  For what it's worth, here are my thoughts on the subject.

    First of all, instead of asking me, you should check out Brian Leiter's Philosophical Gourmet Report, which is a good resource for anyone interested in graduate work in philosophy.  Particularly helpful is Leiter's "Breakdown of Programs by Specialties" which, for many particular areas of philosophy, including epistemology, ranks departments by how strong they are in that area.  In the previous (2002-04) PGR, those area evaluations were arrived at through e-mail discussions of the members of the PGR advisory board that worked in the area in question.  This time around (2004-06), the area rankings were determined by a survey of experts in the field -- where the group of experts was quite a bit broader than just the advisory board members that did the rankings last time around.  Here are the top 6 in epistemology, according to the PGR: Rutgers is listed all by itself in Group 1, Oxford is listed by itself in Group 2, and in Group 3 we find (listed alphabetically) Brown, New York University, Princeton, and U of Notre Dame.  Those results seemed fairly sound to me when they came out.  (Follow the link above to see the rest of the departments that get ranked below those 6.)  But there have been significant changes since the latest PGR came out.  Here are some further thoughts about the relevant departments, and also some discussion of the impact of recent changes. 

    Boasting several very prominent epistemologists on its faculty, Rutgers was well-chosen as the top program in epistemology.  Alvin Goldman, Peter Klein, Ernest Sosa, and Stephen Stich constitute a formidable line-up of senior epistemologists.  Additionally, and importantly, Rutgers also has several excellent faculty members who, though epistemology is not their main area of research, have done or do good work in the area: Brian Loar, Barry Loewer, Brian McLaughlin, and Jason Stanley.  A graduate student could easily put together an outstanding dissertation committee for a wide variety of dissertation topics in epistemology at Rutgers.  However, since the last PGRs, there have been several changes in Rutgers's faculty, the net effect of which are probably a bit to the negative side for epistemology.  First, the positive: On the faculty lists on which the last PGRs were based, Sosa was listed as part-time at Rutgers because he was splitting time between Brown and Rutgers, but, as reported here, Sosa will be moving to full-time at Rutgers, beginning in January 2007.  Now the negative: First, as reported here, Colin McGinn has left Rutgers for the University of Miami.  McGinn was not primarily an epistemologist, but he had done some prominent work in the area.  Second, as reported here, John Hawthorne is leaving Rutgers.  Actually, this might not hurt Rutgers relative to the last PGRs as much as one might initially think, because, while Hawthorne was on Rutgers's faculty list for the last PGRs, much of his reputation in epistemology is based on recent work that has come out since those surveys were done -- especially his book, Knowledge and Lotteries.   It's hard to measure the net effect of those changes, but my best guess is that it all works out to a slight negative for Rutgers.  But though the negative effect, if any, is slight, Rutgers's standing as the by-themselves-tops in epistemology is more questionable than it was when the last PGRs were done because their loss of Hawthorne was to their chief rival in epistemology...

    Oxford University features Timothy Williamson, one of the world's top epistemologists and author of Knowledge and Its Limits (Oxford UP, 2000), one of the best and most important books in epistemology in recent years.  (In fact, in my view, that's a bit of an understatement: I'm on record as saying KAIL is the best book in epistemology to come out since 1975.)  Also at Oxford is Ralph Wedgwood who has written some excellent papers in epistemology, and several other faculty who have episemology as an area of interest.  And now John Hawthorne will be going to Oxford.  Adding another prominent epistemologist helps Oxford quite a bit in the area -- and helps them a lot more than it hurts Rutgers, since Rutgers still has many top epistemologists left even after Hawthorne's departure.  Will the result of all the changes be that Oxford moves up into Group 1, along with Rutgers?  That's hard for me to predict.  When I had learned of Hawthorne's deciding to go to Oxford, but had not yet heard of Sosa's moving to full-time status as Rutgers, my very tentative guess was that there would be such a co-grouping.  Now, with Sosa's change in status, I'm more uncertain than ever.

    NYU will probably (and should probably) be moving ahead of the other programs they were listed along with in Group 3 of the last PGRs, with the possible exception of Notre Dame.  Their epistemology team is anchored by three excellent senior epistemologists, Paul Bogghossian, Richard Foley, and James Pryor.  Foley is serving as a Dean at NYU, as well as being a member of the philosophy department, so there is no doubt very stiff competition for his time and energy.  (A look at Foley's recent publishing record, however, shows that he has remained very active in his epistemological writing, despite his duties as Dean.)  But Pryor has been added since the last PGRs, coming to NYU from Princeton, as reported here.  This is big boost to NYU in epistemology, as Pryor is one of the most prominent of the younger-tenured epistemologists.  NYU also has Crispin Wright listed on their web page as a "regular visitor," but he probably shouldn't count too much because my PGR survey has him listed as only quarter-time at NYU.  Importantly, NYU also has some other outstanding philosophers who, though epistemology might not be among their current main area of research, would be very good to work with there.  Peter Unger, though he now works mainly in other areas, used to be primarily an epistemologist (and an excellent one, too: there's a reason why I picked 1975 as the year since which Williamson's KAIL is the best epistemology book: I'd pick Unger's '75 skeptical treatise, Ignorance, as the best book in epistemology since I-don't-know(!)-when).  And, very notably, Roger White has done some excellent recent work in epistemology.  In fact, White's recent work has been tending toward epistemology enough that he should perhaps be counted as among NYU's excellent epistemologists, and not just as an excellent philosopher who occasionally works in the area.  And there are several other faculty members at NYU whom I think it would be very exciting to work with in epistemology.  Hartry Field's important work often takes him deeply into epistemological territory, and he could be an excellent guide to some of this territory.  And, though they don't list epistemology as one of their areas (at least on NYU's faculty web page), Stephen Schiffer and Thomas Nagel have each done some fairly recent work there. Some may reasonably think that NYU may rival Oxford, or perhaps even Rutgers, in epistemology.  (I should divulge that I may be biased in favor of NYU: My first job was there, and I know some of the people there very well.  Still, I think my advice here is sound.)

    Notre Dame's epistemology team is anchored by Alvin Plantinga, whose old (1980s) work in religious epistemology proved to be provocative and important, and whose recent trilogy of books in epistemology -- Warrant: The Current Debate (1993), Warrant and Proper Function (1993), and Warranted Christian Belief (2000) -- constitute one of the major achievments in the field in recent years.  Joining Plantinga recently (but in time for this change to have been already figured into the last PGRs) is Robert Audi, an epistemologist who has done a lot of important work in the area, and who was hired away from Nebraska, and an exciting team of considerably younger tenured epistemologists: Marian David, Michael Depaul, Leopold Stubenberg, and Ted Warfield.

    Gilbert Harman and James Pryor were Princeton epistemology's dynamic duo.  With Pryor having left for NYU, look for Princeton to drop noticeably in the next PGR epistemology rankings.  Princeton did hire Tom Kelly away from Notre Dame since the last PGRs, however -- though this was settled in time that Kelly was already on Princeton's faculty list for the most recent PGRs.  Though untenured at this point, Kelly seems to be an excellent young epistemologist with some first-rate papers to his name already. 

    Brown, too, should fall very noticeably.  Christopher Hill, an excellent senior epistemologist, remains.  But much of Brown's reputation in the area no doubt derived from the presence of Ernest Sosa, one of the leading epistemologists in the country, who has now moved full-time to Rutgers.  Sosa was already splitting time between Brown and Rutgers when the last PGRs were done, but he was listed normally (rather than part-time) at Brown (and part-time at Rutgers), so Brown is likely to be hurt quite badly by this change.  Also, James Van Cleve, who is not primarily an epistemologist, but who has done some important and excellent work in the area, had been listed as splitting time between Brown and USC, but will now be full-time at USC, as reported here.  Remaining at Brown, however, is Jaegwon Kim, who, like Van Cleve, has done some important work in epistemology, though it isn't his main area.

    Since the last PGRs, my own department, at Yale, has added George Bealer, much of whose important work has been in epistemology, especially on a priori knowledge.  And now we have also (very recently) added Tamar Gendler, co-editor (along with John Hawthorne) of the prestigious Oxford Studies in Epistemology.  Much of Gendler's interesting epistemological work to date is in areas of overlap between epistemology and other areas of philosophy (e.g., philosophy of mind, the theory of modality, philosophy of science).  Also coming to Yale from Cornell is Zoltán Szabó.  Though Szabó is not an epistemologist, he is an excellent philosopher of language whose work can be very helpful to students who work in areas of overlap between epistemology and philosophy of language.  Since Yale is my own department, there is a danger of bias in my judgment about where these moves will likely leave Yale in terms of epistemology.  But the facts are that Yale was already ranked in Group 4 in the most recent PGR epistemology rankings, and since then we haven't lost any epistemologists (Robin Jeshion's leaving Yale was already figured into those latest rankings), and have added Bealer and Gendler.  So Yale should be a very good choice for potential epistemologists.  But I probably shouldn't speculate beyond that, given my involvement in the situation. 

    Fordham University was listed in the most recent PGR epistemology evaluations as one of two programs that, though they were not part of the PGR survey, were programs that in the judgment of the PGR epistemology advisory board ought to be considered by students interested in epistemology -- largely on the strength of the presence of John Greco.  And since that latest PGR, Fordham has added Bryan Frances, much of whose recent work has been in epistemology.  Update 5/11/06: It is now reported that Greco will be leaving Fordham to go to Saint Louis University.  UC-Davis, which has hired Stephen Hartmann and Jonathan Vogel since the last PGR surveys were done, will probably (or at least should probably) be moving into a group with the departments currently listed in Group 5 in epistemology, or possibly with those currently in Group 4. 

    For the most part, and unsurprisingly, the top departments in epistemology tend to also be among the top programs overall in philosophy.  Consider the programs that were in the last PGR's top 6 (Groups 1-3) in epistemology.  Rutgers, NYU, Oxford, and Princeton are all good enough overall that they arguably constitute the top 4 philosophy departments in the English-speaking world, and are certainly at least not too far from that; Notre Dame is several slots behind them, and Brown still several more.  For prospective epistemology students, that's both good news and bad.  Good because it's important to go to a program with good over-all strength, and not just one good in your own area of specialization.  Bad because, being among the very top programs, they are no doubt highly selective in admissions and therefore tough to get into.  (Going just by over-all ranking -- and I don't have much else to go by here -- Notre Dame and, even more so, Brown, might be a bit easier to get into than the other four.)  Prospective students interested in epistemology are therefore well-advised to also look into other programs strong in epistemology; see the list of strong programs in the PGR, following the above links.

    But in choosing a program for epistemology, whether it's one of the "top 6" mentioned above, or one of the Group 4 or Group 5 programs listed in the PGR, or one of the programs that didn't make the lists, much will depend, of course, on how well your approach, style, and particular interests match up with the faculty at the various programs.  On that score, you might do well to read some of the published papers of the relevant faculty, and find someone whose work interests you.  As a start, you can check out the depatments' and individuals' web sites, to which I've provided some links (in this section, for some of the departments [for other departments, you can use my list of links to philosophy programs with PhD programs], and below for many of the individual epistemologists).  Unfortunately, you will find that, believe it or not, very many philosophers, including very many from departments with graduate programs, don't even bother to post their CVs or a reasonably complete list of publications on-line!  Still, many do, and one can get quite a bit of helpful information on-line. 

    Hope this is of some help, future colleagues in epistemology.  Remember that it's just one epistemologist's opinion.  Talk to your adivsors about it.

    Epistemologists on the Move.  The following significant moves of epistemologists were announced after the latest PGR rankings, and so weren't taken account of in those rankings:



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    4. Some Epistemologists and Some of Their Epistemological Publications (since 1995)

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    This list is far from exhaustive. I add publications and epistemologists willy-nilly as I come across them or as they're suggested to me.  (So if an epistemology paper of yours isn't listed, or if you're an epistemologist who isn't listed, don't conclude that I've looked at your paper, or at you, but judged them or you unworthy to be included in this index.  It may well even be that I did see your paper and loved it, but didn't have my computer handy at the time, and then didn't remember you & your paper when I did get around to revising this page.)  Still, many have e-mailed to tell me that they find this list very helpful, despite its limitations.  Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the list are the links to various epistemologists' homepages, where you can often find a much more complete description of their epistemological (and other) work (including pre-1995 papers). A few epistemologists are listed without any papers listed below their names.  This is because I'm not aware of any epistemology they've published since 1995.  In each such case, they've done important epistemology in the past, so it was worth providing a link to their home page, where one can often find references to those golden oldies.

    A . C . F . H . K . M . R . T