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(2003) Synthese 136 (3).
The medieval roots of reliabilist epistemology
Albert of Saxony's view of immediate apprehension
Michael J Fitzgerald
pp. 409-434
In the essay I first argue that Albert ofSaxony's defense of perceptual ``directrealism'' is in fact a forerunner of contemporaryforms of ``process reliabilist''epistemologies. Second, I argue that Albert's defenseof perceptual direct realism has aninteresting consequence for his philosophy oflanguage. His semantic notion of `naturalsignification' does not require any semanticintermediary entity called a `concept' or`description', to function as the directsignificatum of written or spoken termsfor them to designate perceptual objects. AlthoughAlbert is inspired by Ockham's mentalact theory, I conclude that Albert seemsto be striking out in a very new direction.
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Fitzgerald, M.J. (2003). The medieval roots of reliabilist epistemology: Albert of Saxony's view of immediate apprehension. Synthese 136 (3), pp. 409-434.
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