Praise for the Book
Noah Valdez and Kele Douglas Keli’imakekauonu’uanuokona Perkins
“Brian Barnett’s meticulously crafted collection is everything that an introduction to epistemology should be: ferociously erudite and stunningly perspicacious; concise and succinct, yet also expansive; and accessibly written, without forsaking rigor or complexity. In eight intellectually captivating and easy-to-read chapters, Introduction to Philosophy: Epistemology takes philosophy students through the basic questions of epistemology: “What is knowledge and what can we know?,” “What makes a belief reasonable, rational, or justified?,” and “What are the ultimate sources of knowledge or justification?” Barnett and the other chapter authors employ a medley of graphs, tables, and illustrations that make notoriously recondite concepts and problems clear, and each lesson ends with an assortment of different resources and tools for further study. Furthermore, each chapter contributes something new, interesting, and diverse to epistemology, and I am certain that these efforts will leave an indelible mark on Barnett’s readers. In short, I have the utmost respect for what Barnett and his authors have accomplished here, and I am positive that the reader will as well.”
– Noah Valdez, Doctoral Student, Cornell University
“As a teacher, I have a great appreciation for this text, which provides a wide range of different voices and perspectives over an even wider range of topics, but does so in a clear and well-organized format. Moreover, the text manages both a high level of accessibility to non-experts without sacrificing any of the rigor necessary at the college introductory level. Most important to an instructor, however, is the consistency with which the text provokes the reader to consider, and then reconsider, the issues upon which many apparently straightforward questions crucially depend. In doing so, this text naturally promotes the kind of critical thinking that is characteristic not only of much of the best work in the discipline of philosophy itself but also of the best pedagogical practices in general.”
– Kele Perkins, MA (CSU Long Beach); Instructor, Whittier High School & Long Beach City College
