The relation between epistemic competence and knowledge in Ernest Sosa’s theory

This paper focuses on the attribution relation between competence and true belief present in epistemic virtue accounts of knowledge such as Sosa’s theory. The core idea is that in cases of knowledge the fact that the agent gets a true belief is attributable to her cognitive competence (competencecon...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Etcheverry, Kátia
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2022
Country:Brasil
Institution:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Repository:Trans/Form/Ação (Online)
Language:Portuguese
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.www2.marilia.unesp.br:article/10972
Online Access:https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/10972
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Condição da Competência
Confiabilismo da Virtude
Ernest Sosa
Conhecimento
Manifestação da Competência
Relação de Atribuição
Attribution Relation
Competence Condition
Knowledge
Manifestation of Competence
Virtue Reliabilism
Description
Summary:This paper focuses on the attribution relation between competence and true belief present in epistemic virtue accounts of knowledge such as Sosa’s theory. The core idea is that in cases of knowledge the fact that the agent gets a true belief is attributable to her cognitive competence (competencecondition), and not to some lucky factor. Critics have presented cases where, purportedly, the agent can either have knowledge without satisfying the competence condition (therefore, the competence condition would not be necessary for knowledge), or, despite the satisfaction of the competence condition, the agent has no knowledge (therefore, the competence condition would not be sufficient for knowledge). The crux of the matter lies in how to conceive properly the competence condition forknowledge, and the underlying relationship between competence and success in the epistemic domain. This paper explores Sosa’s view of this relationship in terms of “cognitive success that manifests the agent’s competence”, and proposes that it provides a more direct answer to the critics than do other epistemic virtue accounts of knowledge.