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Knowledge despite falsehood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Martin Montminy*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma, 455 West Lindsey Street, Norman, OK73019-2006, USA

Abstract

I examine the claim, made by some authors, that we sometimes acquire knowledge from falsehood. I focus on two representative cases in which a subject S infers a proposition q from a false proposition p. If S knows that q, I argue, S’s false belief that p is not essential to S’s cognition. S’s knowledge is instead due to S’s belief that p′, a proposition in the neighbourhood of p that S (dispositionally) believes (and knows). S thus knows despite her false belief. The widely accepted and plausible principle that inferential knowledge requires known premises is unscathed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2014

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