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Full Idea
The central problem of epistemology is what to believe and how to justify one's beliefs, not the impersonal problem of whether my beliefs can be said to be knowledge.
Gist of Idea
Epistemology is centrally about what we should believe, not the definition of knowledge
Source
Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], V.1)
Book Ref
Nagel,Thomas: 'The View from Nowhere' [OUP 1989], p.69
A Reaction
Wrong. The question of whether what one has is 'knowledge' is not impersonal at all - it is having the social status of a knower or expert.
| 6598 | We need our beliefs to be determined by some external inhuman permanency [Peirce] |
| 20140 | We shouldn't object to a false judgement, if it enhances and preserves life [Nietzsche] |
| 20122 | We have no organ for knowledge or truth; we only 'know' what is useful to the human herd [Nietzsche] |
| 2548 | If knowledge is merely justified belief, justification is social [Rorty] |
| 3247 | Epistemology is centrally about what we should believe, not the definition of knowledge [Nagel] |
| 3595 | What works always takes precedence over theories [Williams,M] |
| 12802 | We aren't directly pragmatic about belief, but pragmatic about the deliberation which precedes it [Foley] |
| 12803 | Justification comes from acceptable procedures, given practical constraints [Foley] |