Dario Mortini
Published: 21 January 2019
Putting Knowledge First: New Approaches in Epistemology and Mind.
University of Glasgow
Putting Knowledge First: New Approaches in Epistemology and Mind.
Ever since Plato’s early dialogues, philosophers have been pondering over the nature of knowledge. After all, knowledge matters in a number of crucial ways: perhaps even more so in the present time, where historical labels such as `information era’ or `knowledge industry’ highly suggest the central role that knowledge plays in our lives. Nevertheless, to acknowledge the importance of a phenomenon is not to shed light on its nature. To do so, one needs a method: deep questions naturally call for deep answers which are not to be found without a suitable method.
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the knowledge question, and analytic epistemology aims to answer it by employing the method of analysis, which is roughly an attempt to provide a definition. My research project falls under epistemology; however, I set out to develop a novel account of knowledge that is not a definition. Instead of defining knowledge, I’ll use it to clarify other philosophically interesting phenomena. Such an approach, labelled knowledge-fist, holds far-reaching potential. Accordingly, I mean to embed it in broader framework where insights from the philosophies of mind and cognitive science provide further explanatory resources. In doing so, I shall finally offer a novel answer to an ancient question that has never ceased to prompt philosophical inquiry.
First published: 21 January 2019