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Quote by Ernest Sosa

“Arguably, if you view a real barn in bright sunlight and close by, while fully alert and otherwise in good shape, then you do know whether or not you see a barn. You have "animal" knowledge, says my virtue theory, through the first-order aptness of your judgment.”

Quote by Ernest Sosa

Author

Ernest Sosa is a renowned philosopher, born on June 17, 1940. His research focuses on metaphysics, epistemology, and moral philosophy. more

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“You attain aptness by judging while in good shape and in a good situation (good light, good distance, etc.), through the exercise of good barn-sorting epistemic competence.”

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“It is bad to want something that not even God could attain, especially when the impossibility becomes obvious.”

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“There's not much to be done about the impossibility. One must instead get rid of the desire.”

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“A successful account enables us to understand human knowledge in general.”

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“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.”

Knows Giving Use Eye Vision Objects Color Theory Exercise Shapes Structure Vices Access Data Etc Faculty Nerves Relevant Arriving Reliability Cones Specifics Circularity

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“Suppose we wonder whether we should trust the deliverances of our basic epistemic competences. If those are indeed our basic competences, then in order properly to satisfy our curiosity we will inevitably rely on one or more of them. So, either we squelch our curiosity or we will have to fall into the circularity or regress to which the skeptic objects.”

Ifs Should Order Fall Wonder Objects Curiosity Rely Competence Skeptic Deliverance Circularity

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“There is no need for the scientist to go into whether an observation was made, nor into the who, what, when, or where. The data on which scientific theorizing is based are rather the propositional contents of the instrument readings recorded, or the facts detected thereby.”

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“Philosophers need not much use the word 'intuition' or the concept of intuition, except when they happen to be working on the epistemology of the a priori.”

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“Philosophers do need to have intuitions of various specific sorts: ethical, metaphysical, etc., depending on their targeted subject matter. And they must make intuition reports, as they record the contents of their intuitions. But they need not go into whether an intuition has been enjoyed.”

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“The data on which philosophical theorizing is based are rather the intuited contents themselves, concerning the various thought experiments. At least that is so outside the epistemology of the a priori.”

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Author:Ernest Sosa