Alvin Goldman
Alvin Goldman is a professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His principle areas of research include Epistemology, Philosophy of mind, and Cognitive Science.
Work in Epistemology
Goldman's 1967 paper titled A Causal Theory of Knowing in the Journal of Philosophy put forth a theory of justification in which belief was justified by proper causal connection between the fact which is believed and the existence of the belief. He later acknowleged problems with the original form of the theory, and developed a form of reliabilism which retained causality as a contributing factor to the overall reliability of a belief forming process.
Both approaches are externalist episemological theories and thus avoid the Gettier problem in which justified belief happens to be true only by chance. Criticisms include the generality problem and New Evil Demon problem.
External links
Rutgers bio page and list of publications
References
- Alvin Goldman: A Causal Theory of Knowing in The Journal of Philosophy v. 64 (1967), pp. 335-372.
- Alvin Goldman: What is Justified Belief? in Justification and Knowledge (1979), pp. 1-23.