Alvin Ira Goldman (born 1938) is a professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His principal areas of research include Epistemology, Philosophy of mind, and Cognitive Science. 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. ... Rutgers University Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is located in New Brunswick, Piscataway, Camden and Newark, New Jersey. ... Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. ... Philosophy of mind is the philosophical study of the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, and consciousness. ... Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ...

Work in epistemology

Goldman's 1967 paper titled A Causal Theory of Knowing in the Journal of Philosophy put forth a theory of justification in which belief was justified by proper causal connection between the fact which is believed and the existence of the belief. He later acknowleged problems with the original form of the theory, and developed a form of reliabilism which retained causality as a contributing factor to the overall reliability of a belief forming process. Theory of justification is that part of epistemology that attempts to understand the justification of statements and beliefs. ... Reliabilism, a category of theories in the philosophical discipline of epistemology, has been advanced both as a theory of knowledge and of justified belief (as well as other varieties of so-called positive epistemic status). ...

Both approaches are externalist epistemological theories and thus avoid the Gettier problem in which justified belief happens to be true only by chance. Criticisms include the generality problem and New Evil Demon problem. Recently internalism and externalism have become part of the standard jargon of philosophical discourse, and have become central to certain important debates. ... The Gettier problem is a fundamental problem in contemporary epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge), issuing from counterexamples to the definition of knowledge as justified true belief. ... In philosophy, reliabilism is conducive to a logical process which is flawed because it cannot specify restrictions on qualitative modifiers, such as relevancy. ...

External links

• Rutgers bio page and list of publications

Writings

• Action (1965)
• "A Causal Theory of Knowing" in The Journal of Philosophy v. 64 (1967), pp. 335-372.
• A Theory of Human Action (1970)
• "What is Justified Belief?" in Justification and Knowledge (1979), pp. 1-23.
• Epistemology and Cognition (1986)
• Liaisons: Philosophy Meets the Cognitive and Social Sciences (1991)
• Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science (1993)
• Readings in Philosophy and Cognitive Science (editor), (1993)
• Knowledge in a Social World (1999)
• Pathways to Knowledge: Private and Public (2004)
• Understanding Mind (2005)