1st Edition

Ethno-Epistemology New Directions for Global Epistemology

Edited By Masaharu Mizumoto, Jonardon Ganeri, Cliff Goddard Copyright 2020
    288 Pages 34 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    288 Pages 34 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This volume features new perspectives on the implications of cross-linguistic and cultural diversity for epistemology. It brings together philosophers, linguists, and scholars working on knowledge traditions to advance work in epistemology that moves beyond the Anglophone sphere.

    The first group of chapters provide evidence of cross-linguistic or cultural diversity relevant to epistemology and discuss its possible implications. These essays defend epistemic pluralism based on Sanskrit data as a commitment to pluralism about epistemic stances, analyze the use of two Japanese knowledge verbs in relation to knowledge how, explore the Confucian notion of justification, and surveys cultural differences about the testimonial knowledge. The second group of chapters defends "core monism"—which claims that despite the cross-linguistic diversity of knowledge verbs, there is certain core epistemological meaning shared by all languages—from both a Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and skeptical perspective. The third cluster of essays considers the implications of cultural diversity for epistemology based on anthropological studies. These chapters explore real disparities in folk epistemology across cultures. Finally, the last two chapters discuss methods or perspectives to unify epistemology despite and based on the diversity of folk intuitions and epistemological concepts.

    Ethno-Epistemology is an essential resource for philosophers working in epistemology and comparative philosophy, as well as linguists and cultural anthropologists interested in the cultural-linguistic diversity of knowledge traditions.

    Introduction

    1. Epistemic Pluralism: From Systems to Stances

    Jonardon Ganeri

    2. Knowing how and two Japanese knowledge verbs in Japanese

    Masaharu Mizumoto, Shun Tsugita, and Yu Izumi

    3. “The Rectification of Names" as a Theory of Epistemic Justification

    Yingjin Xu

    4. Testimony, Credit, and Blame

    Shane Ryan, Chienkuo Mi, and Masaharu Mizumoto

    5. Linguistic Strategies against Epistemic Injustice

    Elin McCready

    6. Overcoming the linguistic challenges for ethno-epistemology: NSM perspectives

    Cliff Goddard

    7. Skeptical arguments, conceptual metaphors, and cross-cultural challenges

    Julianne Chung

    8. Delusions in Two Worlds

    Dominic Murphy

    9. Challenges for an Anthropology of Knowledge

    Søren Harnow Klausen

    10. How to Buy Knowedge in Ende

    Satoshi Nakagawa

    11. Conceptual Construction in Epistemology

    Thomas Grundmann

    12. Experimental Philosophy and Analytic Philosophy in the Reflection of Comparative Philosophy

    Anand Jayprakash Vaidya & Purushottama Bilimoria

    Biography

    Jonardon Ganeri is the Bimal K. Matilal Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His previous publications include Philosophy in Classical India (Routledge), The Concealed Art of the Soul, The Self, Attention Not Self, and Classical Indian philosophy (A History of Philosophy without any Gaps, Vol. 5).

    Cliff Goddard is Professor of Linguistics at Griffith University. His research interests include semantics, ethnopragmatics, language description, and accessible communication. His recent books include Words and Meanings (with Anna Wierzbicka; 2014) and the edited collection Minimal English for a Global World (2018). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities.

    Masaharu Mizumoto is associate professor of Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. His area of interest includes experimental epistemology, philosophy of language, Wittgenstein, etc. He is the first editor of Epistemology for the Rest of the World (2018).

     

     

    "This is a timely and exciting volume, addressing from various directions the question of whether contemporary analytic epistemology is ‘Anglophone’ in some problematic way, and exploring the prospects for cross-linguistic and cross-cultural epistemology. These are important issues, and the present volume makes a compelling case for their relevance." – Allan Hazlett, Washington University in St. Louis, USA