Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T23:28:30.029Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Value and Expected Value of Knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Julien Dutant
Julien Dutant*
Affiliation:
University of Geneva
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Meno’s Thesis—the idea that knowing something is better than merely having a true belief about it—is incompatible with the joint claims that (a) believing the truth is the sole source of the value of knowledge and (b) true belief and knowledge are equally successful in believing the truth. Recent answers to that so-called “swamping” problem reject either (a) or (b). This paper rejects Meno’s Thesis instead, as relying on a confusion between expected value and value proper. The proposed solution relies on an externalist view of rationality, which is presented.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 141 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Broome, J. 1999 “Normative Requirements.” Ratio 12: 398–419.Google Scholar
Broome, J. 2004 “Reasons.” In Reason and Value: Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz. Wallace, R. J., Smith, M., Scheffler, S., and Pettit, P., eds. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. 2011 “Reliabilism.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition). Zalta, E. N. ed. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/reliabilism/.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. and Olsson, E. 2009 “Reliabilism and the Value of Knowledge.” In Epistemic Value. Pritchard, D., Millar, A., and Haddock, A., eds. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. I. 1986 Epistemology and Cognition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Greco, J. 2003 “Knowledge as Credit For True Belief.” In Intellectual Virtue: Prespectives from Ethics and Epistemology. Depaul, M., ed. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Greco, J. 2010 Achieving Knowledge: A Virtue-Theoretic Account of Epistemic Normativity. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hawthorne, J. and Stanley, J. 2008 “Knowledge and Action.” Journal of Philosophy 105(10): 571–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyman, J. 1999 “How Knowledge Works.” Philosophical Quarterly 49: 433–451.Google Scholar
Jones, W. 1997 “Why Do We Value Knowledge?” American Philosophical Quarterly 34(4): 423–439.Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. L. 2003 The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. L 2008 “Pointless Truths.” Midwest Studies in Philosophy 22: 199–212.Google Scholar
Lackey, J. 2004 “Review of Michael DePaul and Linda Zagzebski, eds. Intellectual Virtue: Perspectives from Ethics and Epistemology.” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Available at: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=1462.Google Scholar
Leslie, S.-J. 2008 “Generics: Cognition and Acquisition.” Philosophical Review 117(1): 1–47.Google Scholar
Olsson, E. 2007 “Reliabilism, Stability, and the Value of Knowledge.” American Philosophical Quarterly 44: 343–55.Google Scholar
Parfit, D. 2011 On What Matters, Vol. 1. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Piller, C. 2009a “Reliabilist Responses to the Value of Knowledge Problem.” Grazer Philosophische Studien 79: 121–35.Google Scholar
Piller, C. 2009b “Valuing Knowledge: a Deontological Approach.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 12: 413–28.Google Scholar
Riggs, W. D. 2002 “Reliability and the Value of Knowledge.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 64(1): 79–96.Google Scholar
Sosa, E. 2001 “For the Love of Truth?” In Epistemology: Essays on Epistemic Virtue and Responsibility. Fairweather, A. and Zagzebski, L., eds. VirtueOxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swinburne, R. 1999 Providence and the Problem of Evil. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2000 Knowledge and its Limits. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zagzebski, L. 2003 “The Search for the Source of Epistemic Good.” Metaphilosophy 34(1–2): 12–28.Google Scholar