(Ebook) Can We Know Anything?: A Debate (Little Debates about Big Questions) by Bryan Frances, Michael Huemer ISBN 9780367208875, 0367208873

(Ebook) Can We Know Anything?: A Debate (Little Debates about Big Questions) by Bryan Frances, Michael Huemer ISBN 9780367208875, 0367208873

In this book, Michael Huemer and Bryan Frances debate whether – and how – we can gain knowledge of the world outside of our own minds. Starting with opening statements, the debate moves through two rounds of replies.Frances argues that we lack knowledge because, for example, we cannot rule out the possibility that we are brains in vats being artificially stimulated in such a way as to create an illusion of living in the real world. Huemer disagrees that we need evidence against such possibilities in order to gain knowledge of the external world, maintaining instead that we are entitled to presume that things are as they appear unless and until we acquire specific grounds for thinking otherwise. The authors go on to discuss how one should think about controversial issues wherein the experts persistently disagree. Frances argues that we should generally withhold judgment about such issues or at least greatly reduce our confidence. Huemer agrees that people are...