Education
She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Brandeis University and is currently a professor at Harvard University.
( Philosophy long sought to set knowledge on a firm found...)
Philosophy long sought to set knowledge on a firm foundation, through derivation of indubitable truths by infallible rules. For want of such truths and rules, the enterprise foundered. Nevertheless, foundationalism's heirs continue their forbears' quest, seeking security against epistemic misfortune, while their detractors typically espouse unbridled coherentism or facile relativism. Maintaining that neither stance is tenable, Catherine Elgin devises a via media between the absolute and the arbitrary, reconceiving the nature, goals, and methods of epistemology. In Considered Judgment, she argues for a reconception that takes reflective equilibrium as the standard of rational acceptability. A system of thought is in reflective equilibrium when its components are reasonable in light of one another, and the account they comprise is reasonable in light of our antecedent convictions about the subject it concerns. Many epistemologists now concede that certainty is a chimerical goal. But they continue to accept the traditional conception of epistemology's problematic. Elgin suggests that in abandoning the quest for certainty we gain opportunities for a broader epistemological purview--one that comprehends the arts and does justice to the sciences. She contends that metaphor, fiction, emotion, and exemplification often advance understanding in science as well as in art. The range of epistemology is broader and more variegated than is usually recognized. Tenable systems of thought are neither absolute nor arbitrary. Although they afford no guarantees, they are good in the way of belief.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691005230/?tag=2022091-20
(This book takes further strides in an impressive course o...)
This book takes further strides in an impressive course of thought that has already brought notable reconceptions in and beyond philosophy. In The Structure of Appearance, recognition of the relativity left open by legitimate criteria of constructional definition altered the nature of philosophical inquiry. In Fact, Fiction, and Forecast, questions concerning induction were wholly recast. In Languages of Art, the subject matter of aesthetics was transformed. In that book and With Reference to Reference, a novel, sensitive, and powerful theory of symbols clarified relationships among the arts, the sciences, and philosophy. And in Ways of Worldmaking, construction replaced discovery as the main business of scientific and philosophical inquiry. After briefly surveying this course of thought, Reconceptions carries it far forward with brilliant new studies of representation, interpretation, variation, and other topics in the theory of architecture, painting, music, psychology. These studies not only illustrate how the general theoretical approach and apparatus can interrelate and illuminate diverse fields, they also serve as tests that sometimes call for such improvements in the general theory as the invention of a new concept of ‘contrastive exemplification’.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0872200531/?tag=2022091-20
She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Brandeis University and is currently a professor at Harvard University.
She is well known for her several joint works with philosopher Nelson Goodman. Elgin"s work has considered such questions as "what makes something cognitively valuable?" As an epistemologist, she considers the pursuit of understanding to be of higher value than the pursuit of knowledge. In Considered Judgement, Elgin argues for "a reconception that takes reflective equilibrium as the standard of rational acceptability.".
(This book takes further strides in an impressive course o...)
( Philosophy long sought to set knowledge on a firm found...)