Peter D. Klein | |
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| Born | (1940-09-17)17 September 1940 (age 85) |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | Yale University,Colgate University |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
| Main interests | Epistemology |
Peter David Klein (born September 17, 1940) is an Americanphilosopher specializing in issues inepistemology who spent most of his career atRutgers University.
He received aBA atEarlham College (1962), and an MA (1964) andPhD fromYale University (1966).
He taught atColgate University as an assistant professor from 1966 to 1970. Following that, he moved toRutgers University, where he taught as an assistant professor from 1970 to 1973, an associate professor from 1973 to 1981, and a full professor from 1981 until retiring from Rutgers in 2016.[1]
Klein is widely known for his work onskepticism. His most influential work, however, is on the nature of knowledge, where he has long defended thedefeasibility theory. His recent work defendsinfinitism aboutjustification. On this view, to be justified in believing P is to possess a reason R1 to believe P, and a reason R2 to believe R1, and a reason R3.....and so on, ad infinitum. Justification is, so to speak, "turtles all the way down." He has also recently advocated a picture of knowledge according to which one can have knowledge of p even if the justification for the belief of p is essentially based on false premises. Klein calls these "useful falsehoods".
Klein authored one book:Certainty: A Refutation of Skepticism (1982) (University of Minnesota Press), and co-editedAd Infinitum: New Essays on Epistemological Infinitism (Oxford University Press) with John Turri. He has published a number of articles, chapters, and reviews inepistemology.
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