The Agnostic Stance

The Agnostic Stance is a sustained defence of agnosticism as a serious alternative to both metaphysical realism and anti-realism. Metaphysical realists and anti-realists give competing answers to the question of whether truth and reality transcend what we can know or think. The agnostic, by contrast, denies that we are in a position to know how to answer this question. First it is shown how this epistemic reservation can be understood to involve more than merely a temporary suspension of judgement, without thereby collapsing into a form of scepticism inconsistent with the possibility of future knowledge. Then it is argued in detail that agnosticism, as thus understood, fares much better than its realist and anti-realist competitors when it comes to the question about the limits of our thought and knowledge. In pursuing this aim, The Agnostic Stance covers a wide range of topics in general epistemology, the metaphysics of mind and the philosophy of logic and Language.