Testimony: A Philosophical Study - Softcover

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Professor Coady begins by exploring the nature and depth of our reliance upon testimony, addressing the complex definitional puzzles surrounding the idea. He analyses the tradition of debate on the topic in order to gain a deeper understanding of the issues and to revel the epistemic individualism which has given rise to an illusory ideal of 'autonomous knowledge'. Avoiding such individualistic commitments, he concludes the first part of the book by providing a defense of testimony as a source of knowledge. In the second half of the book the author uses this new view of testimony to challenge certain widespread assumptions in the fields of history, mathematics, psychology, and law.