Alvin Goldman

Alvin Ira Goldman (* 1938 ) is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Rutgers University . His main areas of work are epistemology , philosophy of mind and the theory of cognitive science .

Prior to joining Rutgers University, Goldman held professorships at the University of Michigan , the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Arizona . In 2004 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

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In his first book, A Theory of Human Action , based on his doctoral thesis, Goldman dealt with questions of the philosophical theory of action. He investigated the nature of intentionality and the classification of actions with their various levels of description. Positions developed in it were received by John Rawls , among others .

Goldman is best known for his causal theory of knowledge ( epistemology ), which he developed in dealing with the Gettier problem . Gettier, in the 1963 essay Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? Developed examples showing that knowledge cannot be defined as true , justified opinion. To cope with the problem thus raised, Goldman suggested tying knowledge to a reliable, causal link. Only if the opinion about an issue through appropriate processes caused , it can therefore be described as "knowledge". If, for example, the opinion that a cow is standing in the meadow is caused by the perception of a cow in the meadow when the visibility is good, one can speak of knowledge. If, on the other hand, it is caused by a horse or a barely visible cow on the horizon, the concept of knowledge is inappropriate.

Goldman later shifted his academic focus to social theories of knowledge and applied his own theory to areas of law, elective and media studies, among others. In contrast to various cultural studies approaches in the field, Goldman uses the formal instruments of analytical philosophy and he has, among other things, presented the book Knowledge in a Social World to explain the approach. His work on the relationship between cognitive science and philosophy since the mid-1980s has also been presented primarily in book form - Epistemology and Cognition , Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science and Simulating Mind .

Works (selection)

• 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)
• Simulating Minds (2005)
• Alvin Goldman:  Social Epistemology. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Web links

• Literature by and about Alvin Goldman in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• Goldman's website