Carter, J. Adam and Cowan, Robert (2024) Safety and dream scepticism in Sosa’s epistemology. Synthese, 203: 180. ISSN 0039-7857
AI Summary:
This paper develops a response to the objection that Sosa's virtue epistemology countenances unsafe knowledge. The authors argue that this objection is based on an overly narrow understanding of safety, and that a more nuanced understanding of safety can accommodate Sosa's account.AI Topics:
A common objection to Sosa’s epistemology is that it countenances, in an objectionable way, unsafe knowledge. This objection, under closer inspection, turns out to be in far worse shape than Sosa’s critics have realised. Sosa and his defenders have offered two central response types to the idea that allowing unsafe knowledge is problematic: one response type adverts to the animal/reflective knowledge distinction that is characteristic of bi-level virtue epistemology. The other less-discussed response type appeals to the threat of dream scepticism, and in particular, to the idea that many of our everyday perceptual beliefs are unsafe through the nearness of the dream possibility. The latter dreaming response to the safety objection to Sosa’s virtue epistemology has largely flown under the radar in contemporary discussions of safety and knowledge. We think that, suitably articulated in view of research in the philosophy and science of dreaming, it has much more going for it than has been appreciated. This paper further develops, beyond what Sosa does himself, the dreaming argument in response to those who think safety (as traditionally understood) is a condition on knowledge and who object to Sosa’s account on the grounds that it fails this condition. The payoffs of further developing this argument will be not only a better understanding of the importance of insights about dreaming against safety as a condition on knowledge, but also some reason to think a weaker safety condition, one that is relativised to SSS (i.e., skill/shape/situation) conditions for competence exercise, gets better results all things considered as an anti-luck codicil on knowledge.
Title | Safety and dream scepticism in Sosa’s epistemology |
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Creators | Carter, J. Adam and Cowan, Robert |
Identification Number | 10.1007/s11229-024-04577-0 |
Date | 23 May 2024 |
Subjects | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) |
Divisions | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy |
Publisher | Springer |
Additional Information | Carter’s research is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Expanding Autonomy (AH/W005077/1) and Digital Knowledge (AH/W008424/1) projects and the Leverhulme Trust’s A Virtue Epistemology of Trust project (RPG-2019- 302). |
URI | https://pub.demo35.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/257 |
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Item Type | Article |
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Depositing User | Unnamed user with email ejo1f20@soton.ac.uk |
Date Deposited | 11 Jun 2025 16:36 |
Revision | 27 |
Last Modified | 12 Jun 2025 11:02 |
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