Epistemic Ecology - Catherine Z. Elgin

Epistemic Ecology

By: Catherine Z. Elgin

Paperback | 20 May 2025

At a Glance

Paperback


$194.50

or 4 interest-free payments of $48.63 with

 or 

Available: 20th May 2025

Preorder. Will ship when available.

An ecological epistemology arguing that epistemic agents, communities, and environments adapt to one another to generate evolving understandings of the world.

An ecological epistemology arguing that epistemic agents, communities, and environments adapt to one another to generate evolving understandings of the world.

Mainstream epistemology focuses on static states. In Epistemic Ecology, Catherine Elgin adopts a dynamic stance, viewing epistemic subjects as agents rather than onlookers. She examines how, individually and collectively, we construct our epistemic practices, policies, principles, and procedures to overcome our limitations, exploit our assets, and correct our mistakes. Taking an ecological approach, she shows how human organisms and their social and natural environments mutually adjust to accommodate each other. Elgin's ecological model of understanding reveals that epistemic agents and communities are interdependent and are more deeply implicated in the individuation and characterization of the phenomena they access than standard spectatorial approaches to epistemology assume.

Elgin maintains that a commitment's epistemic acceptability turns in large part on its providing resources for further epistemic advancement. Epistemic progress is an iterative process that corrects, refines, and extends current understanding. Epistemic subjects are agents, not mere observers, and the positions they accept are springboards for improvement rather than windows into the world. Responsible disagreement is an asset because it has the potential to identify and correct shortfalls in the views that are currently accepted. Rather than treat epistemic success-knowledge, understanding, wisdom-as fixed and final, Elgin views success as a stable platform on which to build. How, she asks, should we leverage our findings to move beyond them? Her holistic conception of understanding is integral to education.

More in Epistemology & The Theory of Knowledge

Irrationality : Elements in Philosophy of Mind - Ema Sullivan-Bissett
Mindset : The New Psychology of Success - Carol S. Dweck
The Denial of Death - Ernest Becker

$24.99

Hamlet's Mill : An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time - Giorgio De Santillana
Critique of Pure Reason : Penguin Classics - Immanuel Kant
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning : Pragmatic Programmers - Andy Hunt
How to get Philosophy Students Talking : An Instructor's Toolkit - Andrew Fisher
Humanistic Narratives - Professor Michel  Serres

RRP $130.00

$97.75

25%
OFF
Humanistic Narratives - Professor Michel  Serres

$90.50

An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge : 2nd Edition - Noah  Lemos
New Essays on Normative Realism - Paul Boghossian
Saying What One Thinks - L & #233; a Salje

$284.25

Technics and Enaction : A Philosophy of Imagination - Émilien Dereclenne

RRP $170.00

$125.75

26%
OFF