For E. Gellner, `critical' monism (the attempt to restore intellectual order by lucid principles) is necessary in our search for the truth, for validity of our knowledge about the world. Cognitive legitimacy can be moored on different anchors, of which two selector theories are the most important: empiricism and materialism. For the empiricists, man is not more than the totality of his experie…
An insightful introduction to the three main currents of modern epistemology. He presents the standard arguments for each school, considers the criticisms lodge against them and how (and if) these were resolved. He definitely favors pragmatism over the other two schools but he gives Rationalism and Empiricism a good showing and has appended helpful reading lists for further study. Highly recomm…