Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the connections between contextualism and epistemic matters. Evelyn Brister's contribution approaches contextualism from a different angle, bringing feminist approaches in the philosophy of science to bear on our epistemic and linguistic questions. The existence of epistemic contextualism refutes the tired complaint that there is nothing new in philosophy. The book articulates the disagreement challenge to contextualism, which is widely considered to be a – or the – central advantage of relativism over contextualism. It draws explicit connections between epistemic contextualism and contextualism about moral vocabulary. The book suggests that debates about the truth of contextualism and those about the methodology for discerning it are tied importantly together. Robin McKenna argues that a serious challenge for semantic implementations of contextualism remains unsolved, and expresses pessimism about its resolution.