Author Archives: Maryann Spikes

Book Discussion of Christopher Norris’ “Epistemology: Key Concepts in Philosophy” Chapter 2: Realism, Reference and Possible Worlds – Section I.I gotta say it straight out-Professor Norris’ style is not accessible to the undergrad. This is not a fun type of … Continue reading →

Book Discussion of Christopher Norris’ “Epistemology: Key Concepts in Philosophy” Chapter 1: Staying for an Answer: Truth, Knowledge, and the Rumsfeld Creed –Sections II-III.These sections deal with Michael Dummett and what has come to be called Dummettian anti-realism. The Verification … Continue reading →

Book Discussion of Christopher Norris’ “Epistemology: Key Concepts in Philosophy” Chapter 1: Staying for an Answer: Truth, Knowledge, and the Rumsfeld Creed –Section I.This section is pretty interesting and examines this quote from former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, … Continue reading →

Book Discussion of Christopher Norris’ “Epistemology: Key Concepts in Philosophy” Introduction, section IV.So, to recap, Norris is going to make the case for realism as ontological commitment and as an “accounting for the growth of scientific knowledge by way of … Continue reading →

Book Discussion of Christopher Norris’ “Epistemology: Key Concepts in Philosophy”Introduction, section III.This section discusses the Anglophone (or “analytic“-maybe Frege?, maybe Quine?) versus “continental” (mainland-European–the only example I recognized was Husserl) traditions. Husserl is grouped with Frege, Duhem with Quine, Kuhn … Continue reading →

I figured it would be cool to post my starting point, and see how it changes/grows as I study this book (Norris’ “Epistemology”). If you want to post something like that, post it in a new thread in the General … Continue reading →

Book Discussion of Christopher Norris’ “Epistemology: Key Concepts in Philosophy”Introduction, section II.This section deals with the demise of logical positivism, beginning with W.V. Quine’s 1951 essay, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”. Quine attacked 1. “the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements … Continue reading →

Book Discussion of Christopher Norris’ “Epistemology: Key Concepts in Philosophy” Introduction, section I. I want to say at the outset that I wish the index was also a subject index, not just a name index, and all the underlining or … Continue reading →