Keith Lehrer (born January 10, 1936) is Emeritus Regent's Professor of
philosophy at the
University of Arizona and a research professor of philosophy at the
University of Miami, where he spends half of each academic year.
Lehrer, and his wife Adrienne Lehrer, are also artists. Their work has been on display at the Vincent Gallery in
Coconut Grove,
Florida, concurrent with his stay at the
University of Miami, where he was a visiting professor.
Philosophical work
Lehrer is best known for his defense of a coherentist theory of knowledge. According to Lehrer, "a person is justified in accepting a proposition just in case that proposition coheres with the relevant part of her cognitive system."[4]
Lehrer's work, "Why Not Skepticism?" is used in many introductory philosophy courses as a coherent and readable introduction to the subject. He has authored seven books on philosophical subjects, and over 170 scholarly articles. Lehrer is perhaps best known for his defense of the
coherencetheory of justification in epistemology. He is the originator of the widely discussed
TrueTemp example.
Rational Consensus in Science and Society: A Philosophical and Mathematical Study (
D. Reidel, 1981), with Carl Wagner
Knowledge (Oxford, 1974)
Recent articles
"Love and Autonomy," in a volume Love Analyzed, ed. R. Lamb, Westview Press, 1997.
"Semantic Fields and Vectors of Meaning," with Adrienne Lehrer, In Lexical Semantics, Cognition and Philosophy, B. Lewandowska-Tomaszcyzyk, Lødz University Press, 1998.
"Meaning, Exemplarization and Metarepresentation," written for Metarepresentation, Dan Sperber ed., a volume of Vancouver Studies in Cognitive Science.
"Acceptance and Belief Reconsidered," in a volume edited by P. Engel, Belief and Acceptance, to be published by Kluwer in Philosophical Studies Series.
"Justification, Knowledge and Coherence," to be published in Erkenntnis.
"Rationality," to be published in Guidebook to Epistemology, Blackwell's, edited by J. Greco and E. Sosa.
"Individualism versus Communitarianism: A Consensual Compromise," written for a symposium at the World Congress of Philosophy, Boston, August, 1998, and to published in the proceedings.
"Reid, Hume and Common Sense," to be published in Reid Studies.
Books edited
Knowledge, Teaching and Wisdom (Kluwer, forthcoming), with Jeannie Lum, Beverly Slichta and Nicholas Smith
Austrian Philosophy, Past & Present (Kluwer, in process), with Johann Marek.
An Opened Curtain: A U.S.-Soviet Philosophical Summit (Westview, 199), with Ernest Sosa
Knowledge and Skepticism (Westview, 1989), with Marjorie Clay
Science and Ethics (Rodopi, 1988) Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays (Hackett, 1983), with Ronald Beanblossom
Analysis and Metaphysics: Essays in Honor of R.M. Chisholm (D. Reidel, 1975)
New Readings in Philosophical Analysis (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972), with Herbert Feigl and
Wilfrid Sellars
Theory of Meaning (Prentice Hall, 1970) with Adrienne Lehrer
Freedom and Determinism (Random House, 1966).
Books about Keith Lehrer
Keith Lehrer, edited by Radu Bogdan, Reidel, 1980.
The Current State of the Coherence Theory: Critical Essays on the Epistemic Theories of Keith Lehrer and Laurence Bonjour, edited by John W. Bender, Kluwer, 1989.
Metamind, Knowledge, and Coherence: Essays on the Philosophy of Keith Lehrer, edited by Johannes Brandl, Wolfgang Gombocz, and Christian Piller, Rodopi, 1991.
The Epistemology of Keith Lehrer (Series: Philosophical Studies Series, Vol. 95), edited by Erik J.Olsson, 2003, 364 p., Hardcover.