PANTHEON
ExploreBuild My Library
© 2026 Pantheon — an atlas of the ideas that shaped how we think.
person1980s-present

Paul Boghossian

Disciplines:
epistemology
philosophy/philosophy of language
ethics/metaethics

Summary

American philosopher who has contributed to the analysis of mental content, self-knowledge, and has written a widely-read critique of epistemic relativism.

Core Contribution

Fear of Knowledge: a systematic critique of relativism and constructivism about knowledge and truth — argues that the fashionable view that knowledge and facts are socially constructed is self-undermining and false. Content and self-knowledge: the semantic externalism debates.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Fear of Knowledge became a go-to resource in debates about post-truth and relativism — a philosophical argument against social constructivism readable by non-specialists.

Notable Works & Achievements

Fear of Knowledge

Content and Justification

Historical Influences

Hilary Putnam Tyler Burge

Intellectual Lineage

Analytic Philosophy

Contemporaries & Peers

Crispin Wright Timothy Williamson

Minds Influenced

No recorded minds influenced.

Intellectual Posterity

Anti-Relativism

Discussing

Paul Boghossian

Ask anything about Paul Boghossian — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

Sign in to start a conversation.