What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781405199940)

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.

Author: David Coady
ISBN-10: 1405199946
ISBN-13: 9781405199940
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Language: English
Published: 04/16/2012
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2012