Paul Faulkner is a contemporary analytic philosopher specializing in social epistemology, with a focus on the epistemology of testimony and the role of trust in knowledge transmission. His work examines how interpersonal trust grounds testimonial justification and knowledge, challenging purely reductionist accounts of testimony. He is the author of 'Knowledge on Trust' (2011), a systematic treatment of how trust mediates our epistemic reliance on others.
Developed a trust-based account of testimonial knowledge in 'Knowledge on Trust' (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Argued that interpersonal trust, not merely speaker reliability, is the grounds for testimonial justification
Analyzed how justification can be transmitted through chains of testimony without reduction to first-person evidence
Contributed to debates between reductionism and anti-reductionism in the epistemology of testimony
Examined the social and normative dimensions of epistemic reliance on others
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