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Knowing from Words

Western and Indian Philosophical Analysis of Understanding and Testimony

  • Book
  • © 1994

Overview

Editors:
  1. Bimal Krishna Matilal

    1. All Souls College, Oxford University, UK

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  2. Arindam Chakrabarti

    1. University of Delhi, India

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: Synthese Library (SYLI, volume 230)

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Table of contents (18 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    Download chapter PDF

  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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Keywords

About this book

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.

Editors and Affiliations

  • All Souls College, Oxford University, UK

    Bimal Krishna Matilal

  • University of Delhi, India

    Arindam Chakrabarti

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Knowing from Words

  • Book Subtitle: Western and Indian Philosophical Analysis of Understanding and Testimony

  • Editors: Bimal Krishna Matilal, Arindam Chakrabarti

  • Series Title: Synthese Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2018-2

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1994

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-2345-7Published: 31 December 1993

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-4287-3Published: 15 December 2010

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-2018-2Published: 29 June 2013

  • Series ISSN: 0166-6991

  • Series E-ISSN: 2542-8292

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 390

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Philosophy of Language, Non-Western Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion

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