Testimony A Philosophical Study [Paperback]

Our trust in the word of others is often dismissed as unworthy, because the illusory ideal of autonomous knowledge has prevailed in the debate about the nature of knowledge. Yet we are profoundly dependent on others for a vast amount of what any of us claim to know. Coady explores the nature of testimony in order to show how it might be justified as a source of knowledge, and uses the insights that he has developed to challenge certain widespread assumptions in the areas of history, law, mathematics, and psychology.

I. The Problematic: The domain of testimony; What is testimony?; Objections and clarifications; II. The Tradition: Testimony, observation, and the reductive approach; Deciding for testimony; The analogical approach; Scottish fundamentalism; III. The Solution: The status of testimony; Language andmind; IV: The Puzzles: Astonishing reports; The disappearance of history; Dretske's drinker; V. The Applications: Collingwood and historical testimony; Mathematical knowledge and reliable authority; Psychology and the law; Experts and the law

An important event in philosophy....Coady's work should change the way we think about the nature and scope of human knowledge....Coady has his answers to the standard problems. Read the book and judge it for yourselves....Excellent. --London Review of Books

InTestimony, Coady takes up the views of Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Locke, Hume, Reid, Russell, Collingwood and H.H. Price for thorough critical examination....Coady's book is immensely rich in details drawn from legal theory and practice, applied psychology and the history of science, as well as the philosophy of knowledge and language. --Times Literary Supplement

The first thorough philosophical treatment of testimony....Coady sheds much light on the widely neglected topic of testimony. He draws important distinctions regarding testimony without being pedantic, and exel£¾