Title: It Usually Begins With Descartes
Product review: Laurence BonJour is one of the leading epistemologists in America. He has written two other books, IN DEFENSE OF PURE REASON and THE STRUCTURE OF EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE.This book takes as his departure the Cartesian program. Much of the book is a discussion of various epistemological problems analyzed in light of responses to Descartes. (For example, Plato and Aristotle are barely mentioned, and Aquinas isn't mentioned at all.) Many of the current issues in epistemology are discussed, such as foundationalism versus coherentism, and sense-data and adverbial theories of perception. There is a lengthy critique of Quine's "naturalized epistemology."This book is part of a new series called ELEMENTS OF PHILOSOPY, which is edited by Robert Audi. Prof. Audi has written a work entitled EPISTEMOLOGY for a different series. That work is also recommended and covers similar ground as Prof. Bonjour's work, but is a little longer.
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