Către un naturalism realist
Towards a Realistic Naturalism

Summary/Abstract: I already argued in Evidence and Inquiry (1993) that there are three different families of thesis in Quine which he calls “epistemology naturalized”. Of these three families, the one that would turn epistemological questions over to the sciences to solve, as in Alvin Goldman, is mistaken. And the second, that epistemology is illegitimate and should be replaced by the sciences of cognition, as in the Churchlands, is also mistaken. The third, that epistemology is not wholly a priori, but at least in part empirical, is, I believe, correct, correctly interpreted; but it requires the concept of contributory relevance of scientific results to epistemological claims that I introduced in my book. As I wrote this paper, I realized how appropriate was the title of my paper at the Quine conference, “Rebuilding the Ship while Sailing on the Water”.

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