Within these four volumes, we meet much of whatever epistemology has been and is. Why is this form of historical engagement philosophically important?

The Philosophy of Knowledge: A History presents the history of one of Western philosophy's greatest challenges: understanding the nature of knowledge. To know epistemology's history is to know better what contemporary epistemology could be and perhaps should be - and what it need not be and perhaps ought not to be.

Divided chronologically into four volumes, it follows conceptions of knowledge that have been proposed, defended, replaced, and proposed anew by ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary philosophers.

Each volume centers around three key questions: what conceptions of knowledge have been offered? Which have shaped epistemology in particular and philosophy in general? How is knowledge conceived by philosophers now? Together these volumes trace the historical development of knowledge for the first time, covering:

- Presocratics, Sophists and treatments of knowledge offered by Socrates and Plato
- The influence of Aristotle and Augustine during the Middle Ages
- Questions of science and religion in the 17th, 18th and 19th century and the work of Descartes, Hobbes, Kant and Leibniz
- Contemporary discussions about scientific, social and self-knowledge and attempts to understand knowledge naturalistically, contextually and normatively.

With original insights into the vast sweep of ways in which philosophers have sought to understand knowledge, The Philosophy of Knowledge: A History embraces what is vital and evolving within contemporary epistemology. Overseen by an international team of leading philosophers and featuring 50 specially-commissioned chapters, this is a major collection on one of philosophy's defining topics.

Table of Contents:

Volume I: Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy
(ed.) Nicholas D. Smith
Ancient Epistemology: Introduction (Nicholas D. Smith)
1. 'Sophia' and 'Episteme' in the Archaic and Classical Periods (David Wolfsdorf)
2. Presocratic Epistemology (Daniel W. Graham)
3. Epistemology in the Sophists (Noburu Notomi)
4. Socratic Epistemology (Jose Lourenço and Nicholas D. Smith)
5. Epistemology in Plato's Middle Dialogues (Naomi Reshotko)
6. Plato's Later Epistemology (Hugh H. Benson)
7. Aristotle on Understanding and Practical Wisdom (Corinne Gartner)
8. Aristotle: From Perception to Understanding (Keith McPartland)
9. Epicurean Epistemology (Pierre-Marie Morel)
10. Stoic Epistemology (Marcelo Boeri)
11. Ancient Scepticism (Paul Woodruff)
12. Epistemologies in Neoplatonism (Péter Lautner)
13. Roman Epistemology (Walter Englert)

Volume II: Knowledge in Medieval Philosophy
(ed.) Henrik Lagerlund
1. Avicenna on Knowledge: Deborah Black (University of Toronto)
2. Scientia in the 12th Century: Rafael Najera ( Brown University)
3. Averroes on Demonstration: Richard Taylor (Marquette University)
4. Grosseteste on Demonstration: John Longeway (formerly of University of Wisconsin, Parkside)
5. Aquinas on Knowledge and Demonstration: Alexander Hall (Clayton State University)
6. Henry of Ghent and John Duns Scotus on Knowledge
7. William Ockham on Knowledge
8. Nicholas of Autrecourt on Knowledge: Ghristophe Grellard (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - not yet confirmed)
9. John Buridan on Knowledge: Gyula Klima (Fordham University)
10. The Posterior Analytics after Buridan: Henrik Lagerlund (University of Western Ontario)
11. Suarez on Knowledge: Benjamin Hill (University of Western Ontario)

Volume III: Knowledge in Modern Philosophy
(ed.) Stephen Gaukroger
1. Bacon: Dana Jalobeanu
2. Hobbes and Gassendi: Antonia LoLordo and Stewart Duncan (University of Virginia)
3. Descartes: Anik Waldow (University of Sydney)
4. Spinoza: Aaron Garrett (Boston University)
5. Malebranche and Berkeley: Andrew Pyle
6. Leibniz: Justin Smith
7. Locke: Peter Anstey (University of Sydney)
8. Hume: Margaret Schabas (University of British Columbia)
9. Kant: John Zammito (Rice University)
10. German Idealism: Dean Moyar
11. German Philosophy between Hegel and Frege: Frederick Beiser (Syracuse University)
12. Whewell, Mill, and the Birth of the Philosophy of Science: Stephen Gaukroger (University of Sydney)

Volume IV: Knowledge in Contemporary Philosophy
(eds.) Stephen Hetherington and Markos Valaris
1. Pragmatism and Epistemology: Scott Aikin (Vanderbilt University)
2. On Our Epistemological Debt to Moore and Russell: Claudio de Almeida (PUCRS, Brazil)
3. What Knowledge Is Not: Reflections on Some Uses of the Verb 'To Know': Julia Tanney (independent scholar; formerly at University of Kent))
4. Naturalistic Descriptions of Knowledge: Kourken Michaelian (University of Otago)
5. Knowing the Unobservable: Confirmation and Theoretical Virtue: Stathis Psillos (University of Athens)
6. Social Knowledge and Social Norms: Peter J. Graham (University of California, Riverside)
7. Knowledge-How and Perceptual Learning: Berit Brogaard (University of Miami)
8. Self-Knowledge: Markos Valaris (University of New South Wales)
9. Knowledge as Contextual: Michael Blome-Tillmann (McGill University)
10. Knowledge and Probability: Weng Hong Tang (National University of Singapore)
11. Analysing the Concept of Knowledge: Duncan Pritchard (University of Edinburgh)
12. Conceiving of Knowledge in Modal Terms? Stephen Hetherington (University of New South Wales)
13. Knowledge and Normativity: Clayton Littlejohn (King's College London)
14. Intellectual Virtue and Knowledge: Heather Battaly (California State University, Fullerton)