“One does not avoid incompetence if one makes an attempt whose likelihood of success is too low. This seems little more than analytic: when the performance is in a domain that imposes standards of risk, attempts may or may not meet such standards. And the relevant competence of agents then includes reliably enough meeting those standards.” IfsMayLittlesDoeEnoughSeemsRiskLowsStandardsPerformancesMeetingsAgentsRelevantDomainCompetenceIncompetenceLikelihoodAnalytics Author:Ernest Sosa
“If the agent aims to make the attempt if and only if it would be apt, then a distinctive element of risk assessment becomes relevant: How probably would the agent succeed in attempting that fuller end?” IfsEndsWould BeRiskSucceedElementsAimAgentsRelevantAttemptingAssessmentDistinctiveIfs And Author:Ernest Sosa
“In arriving at the relevant theory about the specifics of our faculty of vision we will presumably use our eyes to gather relevant data. Based on such data we come to know about the optic nerve, the structure of our eyes, the rods and cones, etc., so as to explain how it is that vision gives us reliable access to the shapes and colors of objects around us. In reliably arriving at that theory we thus exercise the very faculty whose reliability is explained by the theory. There is no vice in this sort of circularity.” KnowsGivingUseEyeVisionObjectsColorTheoryExerciseShapesStructureVicesAccessDataEtcFacultyNervesRelevantArrivingReliabilityConesSpecificsCircularity Author:Ernest Sosa
“Animal knowledge is metaphysically constituted by apt belief, by belief whose correctness manifests the believer's epistemic competence, a relevant disposition to get it right on the matter at hand when one tries to do so.” TryingMatterHandsBeliefAnimalBelieverRelevantDispositionCompetenceCorrectness Author:Ernest Sosa
“Epistemology now flourishes with various complementary approaches. This includes formal epistemology, experimental philosophy, cognitive science and psychology, including relevant brain science, and other philosophical subfields, such as metaphysics, action theory, language, and mind. It is not as though all questions of armchair, traditional epistemology are already settled conclusively, with unanimity or even consensus. We still need to reason our way together to a better view of those issues.” WayNeedsMindStillsReasonPhilosophyActionTogetherLanguageViewsBrainIssuesPsychologyTheoryApproachPhilosophicalIncludingVariousTraditionalRelevantFormalMetaphysicsConsensusCognitiveEpistemologyCognitive ScienceComplementaryArmchairsUnanimityBrain Science Author:Ernest Sosa
