What Is This Thing Called Knowledge?

What is knowledge? Where does it come from? What kinds of knowledge are there? Can we know anything at all? What is the practical relevance of learning about epistemology?

This lucid and engaging introduction grapples with these central questions in the theory of knowledge, offering a clear, non-partisan view of the main themes of epistemology. Both traditional issues and contemporary ideas are discussed in twenty easily digestible chapters, each of which conclude with a useful summary of the main ideas discussed, study questions, annotated further reading and a guide to internet resources.

Each chapter also features text boxes providing bite-sized summaries of key concepts and major philosophers, and clear and interesting examples are used throughout. The book concludes with an annotated guide to general introductions to epistemology, a glossary of key terms, and a summary of the main examples used in epistemology. This an ideal first textbook in the theory of knowledge for undergraduates coming to philosophy for the first time.

The fourth edition has been revised and updated throughout and features four new chapters on applied epistemology, covering the relationship between the theory of knowledge and technology, education, law, and politics. In addition, the text as a whole has been refreshed to keep it up to date with current developments.

Duncan Pritchard FRSE is Chancellor’s Professor of Philosophy at the University of California Irvine, USA, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His main research area is epistemology, and he has published widely in this field. His monographs include Epistemic Luck (2005), The Nature and Value of Knowledge (with A. Millar and A. Haddock, 2010), Epistemological Disjunctivism (2012), and Epistemic Angst (2015). In 2007 he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for his research. In 2011 he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2013 he delivered the annual Soochow Lectures in Philosophy, in Taipei, Taiwan.