Universität zu Köln

Bernecker, Sven (2020). Against global method safety. Synthese, 197 (12). S. 5101 - 5117. DORDRECHT: SPRINGER. ISSN 1573-0964

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Abstract

The global method safety account of knowledge states that an agent's true belief that p is safe and qualifies as knowledge if and only if it is formed by method M, such that her beliefs in p and her beliefs in relevantly similar propositions formed by M in all nearby worlds are true. This paper argues that global method safety is too restrictive. First, the agent may not know relevantly similar propositions via M because the belief that p is the only possible outcome of M. Second, there are cases where there is a fine-grained belief that is unsafe and a relevantly similar coarse-grained belief (with looser truth conditions) that is safe and where both beliefs are based on the same method M. Third, the reliability of conditional reasoning, a basic belief-forming method, seems to be sensitive to fine-grained contents, as suggested by the wide variation in success rates for thematic versions of the Wason selection task.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Bernecker, Sven UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-310182
DOI:	10.1007/s11229-018-02008-5
Journal or Publication Title:	Synthese
Volume:	197
Number:	12
Page Range:	S. 5101 - 5117
Date:	2020
Publisher:	SPRINGER
Place of Publication:	DORDRECHT
ISSN:	1573-0964
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language History & Philosophy Of Science; Philosophy Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/31018