Gail Stine

{{short description|American philosopher}}

Gail Stine (nee Caldwell, 1940–December 28, 1977) was an American philosopher who specialized in epistemology and philosophy of language. She was born in Schenectady, New York.{{cite news |title=Mrs. William Stine |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107501448/the-morning-call/ |access-date=13 August 2022 |work=The Morning Call |date=29 December 1977}}

Before her death at the age of 37,{{cite web|url=http://www.survivor99.com/pscience/2006-6/philosophy/Folder%20%20of%20Logic/willard_van_orman_quine.htm|title=Willard Van Orman Quine|publisher=Survivor99.com|accessdate=4 November 2014}} she was a professor of philosophy at Wayne State University.{{cite journal|jstor=2025689|title=Notes and News|date=1 January 1978|journal=The Journal of Philosophy|volume=75|issue=2|pages=113–118|doi=10.5840/jphil197875239}} Wayne State now holds the annual Gail Stine Memorial Lecture in her honor.{{cite web|url=http://clasweb.clas.wayne.edu/Multimedia/Philosophy/files/PhilosophySelf-study.pdf|title=Wayne State University : Academic Program Review : Philosophy Department : Fall 2008|publisher=Clasweb.clas.wayne.edu|accessdate=4 November 2014|archive-date=14 July 2012|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120714030945/http://clasweb.clas.wayne.edu/Multimedia/Philosophy/files/PhilosophySelf-study.pdf|url-status=dead}} Mount Holyoke College holds an annual Gail Stine Lecture in her honor.[https://events.mtholyoke.edu/event/s_matthew_liao-a_gail_caldwell_stine_lecture_series]

Education

Stine graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1962. Stine was a student of W. V. O. Quine and received her PhD at Harvard University in 1969 under the supervision of Burton Dreben.

Work

Stine was an advocate of contextualism, the view that our standards for knowledge vary by situation.{{cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/contextualism-epistemology/|title=Epistemic Contextualism|publisher=Plato.stanford.edu|accessdate=4 November 2014}} Stine also advocates the view that for a subject to know that p, she must rule out all relevant alternatives to p, a position also held by Alvin Goldman and Fred Dretske.{{cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/|title=The Analysis of Knowledge|publisher=Plato.stanford.edu|accessdate=4 November 2014}} Probably her most well-known article is her 1976 Philosophical Studies article, "Skepticism, Relevant Alternatives, and Deductive Closure".{{Cite journal|jstor=4319027|title=Skepticism, Relevant Alternatives, and Deductive Closure|last1=Stine|first1=G. C.|journal=Philosophical Studies|year=1976|volume=29|issue=4|pages=249–261|doi=10.1007/BF00411885|s2cid=170145647}}

References