Epistemology books
Epistemology books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
Start here
New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
The Problems of Philosophy
Bertrand RussellA short, readable introduction to the problems of knowledge, appearance and reality, and the basis of belief in material things.
Meditations on First Philosophy
René DescartesDoubts everything that can be doubted to find a secure foundation for knowledge, and is the origin of the modern problem of skepticism about the external world.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David HumeArgues that our belief in causation and in the uniformity of nature cannot be justified by reason alone, a challenge that still frames the problem of induction.
Theaetetus
PlatoThe earliest sustained discussion of what knowledge is, testing the definitions knowledge as perception, as true belief and as true belief with an account. The year is approximate.
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John LockeA foundational empiricist account of how ideas arise from experience and of the limits and degrees of human knowledge.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
Reading lists
More epistemology books
- Critique of Pure Reason
Critique of Pure ReasonImmanuel Kant - Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
Empiricism and the Philosophy of MindWilfrid Sellars - The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism
The Significance of Philosophical ScepticismBarry Stroud - Philosophical Explanations
Philosophical ExplanationsRobert Nozick - Knowledge and Its Limits
Knowledge and Its LimitsTimothy Williamson - Epistemic Injustice
Epistemic InjusticeMiranda Fricker - In pursuit of truth
In pursuit of truthPaul Levinson1982