Epistemic contextualism is a recent and hotly debated topic in philosophy. Contextualists argue that the language we use to attribute knowledge can only be properly understood relative to a specified context. How much can our knowledge depend on context? Is there a limit, and if so, where does it lie? What is the relationship between epistemic contextualism and fundamental topics in philosophy such as objectivity, truth, and relativism?

The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising thirty-seven chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into eight parts:

• Data and motivations for contextualism
• Methodological issues
• Epistemological implications
• Doing without contextualism
• Relativism and disagreement
• Semantic implementations
• Contextualism outside 'knows'
• Foundational linguistic issues.

Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including contextualism and thought experiments and paradoxes such as the Gettier problem and the lottery paradox; semantics and pragmatics; the relationship between contextualism, relativism, and disagreement; and contextualism about related topics like ethical judgments and modality.

The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism is essential reading for students and researchers in epistemology and philosophy of language. It will also be very useful for those in related fields such as linguistics and philosophy of mind.

About the Author
Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His research focuses on issues in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. He is the co-author, with Benjamin Jarvis, of The Rules of Thought (2013), and the author of Contextualising Knowledge: Epistemology and Semantics (2017).

Reviews

"Can greater attentiveness to the mechanisms of language solve, or dissolve, central philosophical problems? In no area has this question been as deeply explored as epistemology. This remarkable volume brings together most of the major contributors to this debate in epistemology, one that has clear ramifications for philosophical methodology generally." - Jason Stanley, Yale University, USA

"An excellent resource for students and researchers interested in epistemic contextualism, with expert treatment of a broad range of pertinent topics. The editor and his slate of contributors inspire high confidence." - Ernest Sosa, Rutgers University, USA

Book Information
ISBN 9780367370640
Author Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa
Format Paperback
Page Count 516
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g