Analyzing Social Knowledge [Paperback]

Analyzing Social Knowledgeargues for both socialized and naturalized epistemology. J. Angelo Corlett takes social epistemology in a new direction, applying the findings of experimental cognitive psychology to theories of social knowledge. Corlett analyzes social knowlegde in terms of group belief, individual belief, truth, justification, coherence, and reliability and responsibility. He provides a critique of leading theories of social knowledge and defends his analysis against respected criticisms of naturalized epistemology. The far-reaching implications ofAnalyzing Social Knowledgewill interest epistemoloogists, philosophers of the mind, and cognitive psychologists.J. Angelo Corlettis assistant professor of philosophy at Georgia State University. Articles have appeared inPublic Affairs Quarterly, The Journal of Social Philosophy, The Journal of Business Ethics,andSocial Epistemology. He editedEquality and Liberty: Analyzing Rawls and Nozick(Macmillan).

Corlett has provided an account of analytic social epistemology that should meet the objections of most analytic philosophers without losing the interest of the sociologists and psychologists who have made social epistemology such a vibrant enterprise. This is probably the best primer in analytic social epistemology currently available. Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology, University of Warwick, author of Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Era

Corlett tackles a topic that needs more attention within analytic epistemology, our ascriptions of knowledge and belief to groups of people as opposed to individuals. It is to be hoped that the book will stimulate further discussion of a topic germane to many disciplines. Margaret Gilbert, University of Connecticut