What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues

By David Coady

Book Overview

What can we know and what should we believe about today's world? What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues applies the concerns and techniques of epistemology to a wide variety of contemporary issues. Questions about what we can know-and what we should believe-are first addressed through an explicit consideration of the practicalities of working these issues out at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Coady calls for an 'applied turn' in epistemology, a process he likens to the applied turn that transformed the study of ethics in the early 1970s. Subjects dealt with include: Experts-how can we recognize them? And when should we trust them? Rumors-should they ever be believed? And can they, in fact, be a source of knowledge? Conspiracy theories-when, if ever, should they be believed, and can they be known to be true? The blogosphere-how does it compare with traditional media as a source of knowledge and justified belief? Timely, thought provoking, and controversial, What to Believe Now offers a wealth of insights into a branch of philosophy of growing importance-and increasing relevance-in the twenty-first century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1405199946
• ISBN13: 9781405199940
• Release Date: April 2012
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"