Knowing from Words

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction

   • Bimal Krishna Matilal, Arindam Chakrabarti

   Pages 1-21

3. Knowing from Words

   • P. F. Strawson

   Pages 23-27

4. Is there an Irreducible Mode of Word-Generated Knowledge?

   • J. N. Mohanty

   Pages 29-49

5. Testimony, Justification and Coherence

   • Keith Lehrer

   Pages 51-58

6. Testimony and Coherence

   • Ernest Sosa

   Pages 59-67

7. Epistemology of Testimony and Authority: Some Indian Themes and Theories

   • S. Bhattacharyya

   Pages 69-97

8. Telling as Letting Know

   • Arindam Chakrabarti

   Pages 99-124

9. Against Gullibility

   • Elizabeth Fricker

   Pages 125-161

10. The Role of Comprehension

    • Julie Jack

    Pages 163-193

11. Knowledge by Hearsay

    • John McDowell

    Pages 195-224

12. Testimony, Observation and “Autonomous Knowledge”

    • C. A. J. Coady

    Pages 225-250

13. Testimony and Memory

    • Michael Dummett

    Pages 251-272

14. History, Testimony, and Two Kinds of Scepticism

    • Gordon Brittan

    Pages 273-295

15. Testimony, Knowledge and Belief

    • Michael Welbourne

    Pages 297-313

16. On Propositions: A Naiyāyika Response to Russellian Theory

    • B. Shukla

    Pages 315-324

17. Proper Names and Individuals

    • Visvabandhu Bhattacharya

    Pages 325-346

18. Understanding, Knowing and Justification

    • Bimal Matilal

    Pages 347-366

19. Gaṅgeśa on Self-Mentioning Words

    • Sukharanjan Saha

    Pages 367-384

20. Back Matter

    Pages 385-390

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Never before, in any anthology, have contemporary epistemologists and philosophers of language come together to address the single most neglected important issue at the confluence of these two branches of philosophy, namely: Can we know facts from reliable reports? Besides Hume's subversive discussion of miracles and the literature thereon, testimony has been bypassed by most Western philosophers; whereas in classical Indian (Pramana) theories of evidence and knowledge philosophical debates have raged for centuries about the status of word-generated knowledge.
`Is the response "I was told by an expert on the subject" as respectable as "I saw" or "I inferred" in answer to "How do you know?"' is a question answered in diverse and subtle ways by Buddhists, Vaisesikas and Naiyayikas. For the first time this book makes available the riches of those debates, translating from Sanskrit some contemporary Indian Pandits' reactions to Western analytic accounts of meaning and knowledge.
For advanced undergraduates in philosophy, for researchers - in Australia, Asia, Europe or America - on epistemology, theory of meaning, Indian or comparative philosophy, as well as for specialists interested in this relatively fresh topic of knowledge transmission and epistemic dependence this book will be a feast.
After its publication analytic philosophy and Indian philosophy will have no excuse for shunning each other.

• David Hume
• Proposition
• Theory of Meaning
• epistemology
• knowledge
• language
• scepticism
• subject

• All Souls College, Oxford University, UK

  Bimal Krishna Matilal

• University of Delhi, India

  Arindam Chakrabarti

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