Abstract
This part, like all others in this book, consists of a mix of classic papers that have defined the area and modern ones illustrating important current issues. These texts provide rich fare, and they defy simple labels summarizing their content. Moreover, a look at the list of authors reveals a mixture of different academic cultures, from philosophy to computer science. One might also add that the texts do not all agree: they span a landscape with many positions and perspectives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Suggested Further Reading
Starting with a classical trailblazer, J. Hintikka, Knowledge and Belief: An Introduction to the Logic of the Two Notions, Cornell University Press 1962 and King’s College Publications 2005, set the whole subject on its course. A series of later books broadened the paradigm to a general view of information and inquiry, as represented in J. Hintikka, Logic, Language-Games and Information: Kantian Themes in the Philosophy of Logic, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1973. Putting inquiry at center stage in epistemology has also been the persistent theme of Robert Stalnaker’s work in the field, with Inquiry, The MIT Press, 1987, as a classic source. Meanwhile, a richer view of possible epistemic and doxastic attitudes suggested by natural language was investigated in W. Lenzen, “Recent Work in Epistemic Logic”, Acta Philosophica Fennica 30 (1978): 1–219, which also discusses links with probability. Also still in the 1970s, epistemic and doxastic logic were rediscovered in the foundations of game theory, but references for this will be found in another part of these readings. But arguably the major development invigorating epistemic logic has been its crossing into computer science, in the study of information-driven agency. Two major books demonstrating the resulting outburst of new research are R. Fagin, J. Y. Halpern, Y. Moses & M. Vardi, Reasoning about Knowledge, The MIT Press, 1995, and W. van der Hoek & J-J Meijer, Epistemic Logic for AI and Computer Science, Cambridge University Press, 1995. An even more radically computational algorithmic understanding has been that of formal learning theory, inspired by learning methods for infinite structures like human languages or the process of scientific inquiry. The classic source for this is K. Kelly, The Logic of Reliable Inquiry, Oxford University Press, 1996. We conclude with two other angles on knowledge that bring in further mathematical paradigms. One is the verificationist perspective on knowledge through proof and evidence, for which a classic text is M. Dummett, Truth and Other Enigmas, Harvard University Press, 1978. Finally, while these publications are concerned with knowledge and belief, another broad stream has taken information flow through Shannon-type channels to be the basic underlying notion, following Dretske’s classic Knowledge and the Flow of Information, The MIT Press, 1981. An innovative logical framework taking this road much further is J. Barwise & J. Seligman, Information Flow, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arló-Costa, H., Hendricks, V.F., van Benthem, J. (2016). Introduction. In: Arló-Costa, H., Hendricks, V., van Benthem, J. (eds) Readings in Formal Epistemology. Springer Graduate Texts in Philosophy, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20451-2_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20451-2_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20450-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20451-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)