The folly of trying to define knowledge

Analysis 67 (3):214-219 (2007)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The paper gives an a priori argument for the view that knowledge is unanalysable. To establish this conclusion I argue that warrant, i.e. the property, whatever precisely it is, which makes the difference between knowledge and mere true belief, entails both truth and belief and thus does not exist as a property distinct from knowledge: all and only knowledge can turn a true belief into knowledge. The paper concludes that the project of trying to find a condition distinct from knowledge that is necessary and together with truth and belief sufficient for knowledge must be doomed to failure.

Similar books and articles

The folly of trying to define truth.Donald Davidson - 1996 - Journal of Philosophy 93 (6):263-278.
Knowledge and Presuppositions.Michael Blome-Tillmann - 2014 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Democritus and folly: The two wise Fools.Claudia Zatta - 2001 - Bibliothèque d'Humanisme Et Renaissance 63 (3):533-549.
Folly Goes French.Paul J. Smith - 2015 - Erasmus Studies 35 (1):35-60.
Counter Closure and Knowledge despite Falsehood.Brian Ball & Michael Blome-Tillmann - 2014 - Philosophical Quarterly 64 (257):552-568.
Rethinking Knowledge.Carlo Cellucci - 2015 - Metaphilosophy 46 (2):213-234.
Chisholm on knowledge.S. Shuger - 1979 - Philosophical Studies 35 (4):413 - 419.
L'évangile de la folie sainte.Frédéric Le Gal - 2001 - Recherches de Science Religieuse 3 (3):419-442.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
809 (#18,082)

6 months
101 (#39,379)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Michael Blome-Tillmann
McGill University

Citations of this work

Warrant Does Entail Truth.Andrew Moon - 2012 - Synthese 184 (3):287-297.
John Cook Wilson on the indefinability of knowledge.Guy Longworth & Simon Bastian Wimmer - 2022 - European Journal of Philosophy 30 (4):1547-1564.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Epistemic Luck.Duncan Pritchard - 2005 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
Warrant: The Current Debate.Warrant and Proper Function.Alvin Plantinga - 1993 - New York, US: Oxford University Press USA.
The inescapability of Gettier problems.Linda Zagzebski - 1994 - Philosophical Quarterly 44 (174):65-73.
An analysis of factual knowledge.Peter Unger - 1968 - Journal of Philosophy 65 (6):157-170.

View all 11 references / Add more references