Testimony: A Philosophical Introduction

Joseph H. Shieber

The epistemology of testimony has experienced a growth in interest over the last twenty-five years that can be matched by few, if any, other areas of philosophical investigation. Testimony: A Philosophical Introduction is an introduction to the epistemology of testimony that surveys this rapidly growing research area while incorporating a discussion of relevant empirical work from social and developmental psychology, as well as from the study of knowledge creation in groups. The past decade has seen a number of books on the epistemology of testimony, but there is a dearth of books that survey the current field. This book seeks to fill that gap, providing an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of all of the major competing theories. 

Read Stephen Wright's review of the book in Philosophical Quarterly here. From the opening paragraph: 
[Shieber's book] is historically sensitive, with some excellent discussions of the history of the epistemology of testimony. ... There are also some really interesting case studies that illustrate, beyond what one usually finds in discussions of the epistemology of testimony, the extent of our everyday epistemic dependence on testimony. ... I think that this book is best thought of as a philosophical treatise, ... and qua philosophical treatise, it is very good. It is full of intriguing ideas and invites serious philosophical discussion.

Published with Routledge, 2015.
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