The Failure of Philosophical Knowledge

Philosophy begins and ends in disagreement. Philosophers disagree among themselves in innumerable ways, and this pervasive and permanent dissent is a sign of their inability to solve philosophical problems and present well-established substantive truths.This raises the question: "What should we do with our philosophical beliefs in light of philosophy''s epistemic failure?" In this open access book, Janos Tozser analyzes the possible answers to this question, develops them into comprehensive metaphilosophical visions, and argues that we cannot commit ourselves to any of them in peace, with a clear intellectual conscience, and without self-deception.Tozser calls this disheartening insight "the experience of breakdown," claiming that no matter how we struggle, we are unable to create substantive philosophical knowledge that goes beyond the cost-benefit analysis of philosophical theories. He makes the case that, at the same time, we cannot suspend all of our beliefs about the most fundamental facts of our world once and for all, and so forever give up on seeking substantive philosophical truths. The ook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungary.

Préface
Questions the basis for knowledge in philosophy and asks what can be done with philosophical beliefs in light of epistemic failure.

Auteur
János Tozsér is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungary.

Contenu

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I

1. Philosophy as an Epistemic Enterprise
2. Philosophy as a Failed Epistemic Enterprise
   Part II
3. Therapy for Philosophers
4. Philosophy with (Intended-To-Be) Compelling Justification
5. Philosophy without Compelling Justification
6. Meta-skepticism
   Part III

7. Breakdown

   Bibliography
   Index