College of Humanities and Social Science  
The University of Edinburgh Humanities and Social Science

Philosophy

Nature of Knowledge Lecture

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Nature of Knowledge Lecture 2008-9

Professor Ernest Sosa
Rutgers University

"Knowledge and Wisdom"

ABSTRACT. What is knowledge and how is it related to wisdom? The lecture will go into the nature of knowledge, and into the nature of wisdom, and into how the two are related. These questions will all be considered within a framework of performance normativity to be explained at the outset. This framework will enable us to distinguish varieties of knowledge and of wisdom. In particular, we shall distinguish the local wisdom distinctive of restricted domains from more nearly global varieties. Along the way we shall distinguish the theory of knowledge of our tradition from an intellectual ethics that is more properly allied with wisdom than with knowledge. Epistemology emerges as a richer discipline than the theory of knowledge focused on the nature, conditions, and extent of human knowledge, and on the correlated problems of philosophical scepticism.

5pm Wednesday 22nd April 2009.

Seminar room 1, Chrystal Macmillan Building (click here for a campus map).

Sponsored by Philosophy. This event is hosted by the Epistemology research cluster.

Nature of Knowledge Lecture programme archive

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School of Philosophy,
Psychology and Language Sciences,
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