Volume 45, Issue 1, Spring 2017
Epistemology and Cognition
Alvin Goldman
Pages 17-32
What Can Psychology Do for Epistemology?
Revisiting Epistemology and Cognition
Within the analytic tradition—especially under the influence of Frege’s anti-psychologism—the thought of incorporating empirical psychology into epistemology was definitely out of bounds. This began to change with the advent of “naturalistic” epistemology, in which Epistemology and Cognition (1986) played a role. However, there is no settled consensus (even among the naturalistically inclined) as to how, exactly, empirical psychology or cognitive science should contribute to the epistemological enterprise. This is the topic to which the present paper is addressed. The discussion explores four topics or issues in contemporary epistemology to which current research in psychology might make helpful contributions: (1) the generality problem for reliabilism; (2) algorithms and belief-forming processes; (3) epistemology and the Bayesian theory of vision; and (4) the rationality wars and dual-process systems.