Cherie Braden

This volume features more than fifteen essays written in honor of Peter D. Klein. It explores the work and legacy of this prominent philosopher, who has had and continues to have a tremendous influence in the development of epistemology. The essays reflect the breadth and depth of Klein's work. They engage directly with his views and with the views of his interlocutors. In addition, a comprehensive introduction discusses the overall impact of Klein's philosophical work. It also explains how each of the essays in the book fits within that legacy. Coverage includes such topics as a knowledge-first account of defeasible reasoning, felicitous falsehoods, the possibility of foundationalist justification, the many formal faces of defeat, radical scepticism, and more. Overall, the book provides readers with an overview of Klein's contributions to epistemology, his importance to twentieth and twenty-first-century philosophy, and a survey of his philosophical ideas and accomplishments. It's not only a celebration of the work of an important philosopher. It also offers readers an insightful journey into the nature of knowledge, scepticism, and justification.

Themes from Klein: Knowledge, Scepticism, and Justification is a collection of essays written to honor retiring philosopher Peter D. Klein, whose work has been and continues to be influential in the ongoing development of contemporary epistemology. Klein has done important work on skepticism, the Gettier problem, the structure of justification, defeasibility theory and defeaters, and his own hotly debated theories, including infinitism and his attempt to systematize what he calls “useful falsehoods.” Klein’s ideas have been influenced, he tells us, by twentieth-century predecessors such as Roderick Chisholm, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and A. J. Ayer. But the reader of Klein’s work will be struck not by whatever similarity it bears to what has come before, nor by the extent to which it departs from the past, but rather by its intellectual integrity. Neither a conformist nor a reactionary, Peter Klein marches to the beat of one drummer: his reasoning. This introduction provides a broad overview of Klein’s ideas on each of the book’s themes (knowledge, skepticism, and justification).