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What Can We Really Know?
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Description
Today, it’s not uncommon to get the impression that our claims to know are either doomed before they begin or that they have a status that approaches certainty. The pendulum seems to swing from one end to the other, with our educational institutions too often perpetuating both depending on the person being asked. Yet the question of how and if our claims to know are really justified remains central. * Is knowledge a purely social construct without any objective basis, as many claim? * Or, if we do have some basis to believe some of our claims, are we justified in holding those claims with an attitude of certainty, as others in today’s environment seem to imply? * And what role do our quick judgments play in those claims? From the tenor of our public debates, one could easily be left with the suspicion that either we can’t know anything or that whatever the present state of knowledge is shouldn’t be questioned. What Can We Really Know? The Strengths and Limits of Human Understanding aims to bring some balance to the topic, and argues that while we do have reason to believe that a great many of our claims are justified, it’s also true that much of what passes for knowledge is a social product and therefore vulnerable to future revision. Exploring how knowledge can be understood, how far science can take us and what its limitations might be, and the status of some of the most recent arguments for God’s existence, it will be suggested that a healthy dose of humility should be reincorporated in our public and private debates.
At a time when claims to know "the truth" are met with howls of dismay, and in which too many of us are being shaped by the defective knowledge communities produced by today's omnipresent social media, this book is a work of signal importance. Positioning himself between naive versions of common-sense realism and pessimistic versions of social construction, author David Andersen articulates a humble and helpful response to the title question in the form of "critical realism." Objectively, he argues, we can know much about what is "out there." At the same time, our knowledge is always shaped, for better and worse, by who and what we are as knowers. Andersen attends, that is, to the world we seek to know, but even more so to the knower him or herself. The first eight chapters offer an illuminating review of research on the latter, drawing equally on research in philosophy, biology, and the social sciences. Writing with admirable clarity, Andersen offers an even-handed presentation of the findings of contemporary research and reflection on human knowing, including such fraught issues as bias and heuristics. The final four chapters apply the results of this work to the question of belief in Christian theism generally and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth in particular. What is on offer here, in short, is much more than a review of old philosophical ideas about epistemology. It is a firm but appropriately cautious affirmation of the quintessentially human quest to know the world, the self, and God. Highly recommend!
Mickey L. Mattox, Ph.D.
Flack Family Foundation Chair and Professor of Theology
Hillsdale College
David Andersen's new book is a gift because of his ability to walk his audience across the arc of our human relationship with knowledge and certainty. In doing so, he does not intimidate but rather challenges readers to carefully consider a range of positions and questions preconceived understandings of knowledge and certainty. At the same time, Andersen's great contribution is his ability to encourage the modern individual to recognize that an evolving relationship with knowledge still steers us to meet and know Truth, who is a person, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dr. Erik P. Ankerberg
President
Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor (CUWAA)
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| Dimensions | 0.96 × 6 × 9 in |
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| Subjects | PHI022000, REL051000, epistemology, how do we know things, what is truth, judging religious claims |