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Forthcoming in The Harvard Review of Philosophy.

THE METHODOLOGY OF EPISTEMOLOGY

Duncan Pritchard

University of Edinburgh

ABSTRACT. A description of the methodology employed by contemporary epistemologists is offered. It is argued that this methodology is in fact far more complex than it might initially appear. In particular, it is claimed that subjects’ initial intuitions about cases play a much less central role in this methodology than might be imagined. As a consequence it is argued that this methodology is not as exposed to certain recent challenges as has been alleged, particularly those challenges that arise out of the negative programme in experimental philosophy.

1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

My goal here is two-fold. First, I want to accurately describe as best I can the actual

methodology employed by analytical epistemologists, at least as I understand that

methodology. In my view there has been a tendency in the recent debate about the

methodology of analytical philosophy to offer a far too crude account of what it is that

analytical philosophers do when they do philosophy, and this is especially so when it comes

to describing what analytical epistemologists do. Second, I want to defend this methodology

from some recent attacks in the literature, especially from exponents of a particularly robust

form of experimental philosophy. In particular, I claim that once we understand the

methodology actually employed by analytical epistemologists properly then we will see that it

is not as exposed to certain challenges in the way that some have claimed.1

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In order to keep my discussion focussed, I will train my attention on the specific

epistemological task of offering a theory of propositional knowledge.

2. EXTENSIONAL, INTENSIONAL AND GENERAL INTUITIONS

Contemporary epistemologists engaged in the project of offering a theory of knowledge are

often characterised as appealing to just one set of data as ‘input’ to that theory!viz., the data

provided by their intuitions about knowledge. As we will see below, I think this way of

describing the methodology of contemporary epistemology is far too simplistic. But even

insofar as we focus on the philosophical data provided by intuition, I still think we need to

recognise that this data comes in various categories, some of which carry very different

epistemic weight when compared to others.

Much of the focus when it comes to the role of intuition in epistemology is on our

intuitive responses to cases, where we are asked to form an intuitive judgement about

whether the target term is applicable in the case under discussion (which may be actual or

hypothetical). Call such intuitive judgements, extensional intuitions. As regards knowledge, the

obvious example to give in this regard is the famous Gettier-style cases in which we are

offered situations in which an agent has a justified true belief and yet their belief is only true

as a matter of luck (cf. Gettier 1963). Such cases are held to elicit the intuition that the agent

lacks knowledge, and thus that the extension of this term does not cover such cases. This in

turn gives us reason to believe that knowledge is not simply justified true belief.

There is much more to the role of intuition in epistemology than extensional

intuitions, however. In particular, one key source of intuitional input to epistemology is that

provided by our intuitions regarding the intension of the target term. Call these intensional

intuitions. With regard to the specific epistemological project that concerns us, the relevant

intensional intuitions will be about knowledge.

Here are some claims about knowledge which might plausibly be offered as

intensional intuitions:

(i) Knowledge that p entails p; (ii) S’s knowledge that p entails that S believes that p; (iii) S’s knowledge that p entails that S is in possession of reasons for thinking that p is true;

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(iv) S’s knowledge that p entails that S’s belief that p is not true simply as a matter of luck; (v) S’s knowledge that p is the result of S’s exercise of a relevant cognitive ability.

This list is clearly not exhaustive, and nor are all the claims on this list beyond contention.

But insofar as these claims are intuitively true, then they appear to specifically constitute

intuitions regarding the intension of the target term.

Now clearly there will be an interplay between our extensional and intensional

intuitions about a term. Perhaps, for example, one’s inclination to judge that knowledge is

factive is a reflection of our inclination to judge that agents lack knowledge in cases where

the proposition believed by the agent is false. Alternatively, perhaps the direction of fit is the

other way around, and our extensional intuitions in this case reflect a prior intentional

intuition about the factivity of knowledge. But even though there might be close connections

between the relevant extensional and intensional intuitions when it comes to specific cases,

we clearly cannot take it as given that this is so across the board, particularly since there seem

to be cases where our extensional and intensional intuitions are in conflict (we will consider

some examples presently).

There is a further type of intuitive data which is relevant here, a kind of intuitive data

which is closely related to intensional intuitions but ultimately distinct. For in addition to

having intuitions about the intension of a term, we can also have general intuitions about

that term which are neither about its intension or its extension. For example, that knowledge

is more valuable than mere true belief is often cited as an important epistemological

intuition, but while this intuition is clearly about knowledge, it does not fall into either of the

two categories we have demarcated.2 Other intuitions of this sort could be that knowledge is

an ‘inquiry-stopper’, or that knowledge is the norm for assertion.3 Call this class of intuitions

general intuitions.

Within any one domain, such as epistemology, there will inevitably be a complex

interplay between these three categories of intuition. One might, for instance, have an

intuition about the intension of a term which is called into question by an extensional

intuition one has regarding a case in which the term has application (or lacks application).

This will obviously generate a theoretical tension that will need to be resolved, perhaps by

highlighting an important ambiguity in the intensional intuition or by showing that the

extensional intuition can be explained away.

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Similarly, one might be led by one’s intensional and extensional intuitions towards a

theoretical account of a term which is in conflict with one or more of the general intuitions.

For example, one’s intensional and extensional intuitions might lead one to adopt a

particular account of knowledge, but one might then realise that this account is unable to

accommodate an important general intuition about knowledge, such as the putative general

intuition noted above that knowledge is more valuable than mere true belief. Again, this will

result in a theoretical tension that needs to be resolved. And of course, even within a

particular category of intuition one could have intuitions that conflict!e.g., by having

extensional intuitions which seemingly support different theories of knowledge.

The foregoing reminds us that intuitions are not set in stone but are instead highly

defeasible, even when we consider them only in the light of other intuitions (we will consider

some non-intuitive data that is part of the epistemological project in a moment). This raises

the interesting question of just how defeasible our intuitions are, which brings me to a

further point. For while I think we should regard all of our intuitions as individually

defeasible, I also think we should resist putting all our intuitions on a theoretical par. Indeed,

I want to suggest that some intuitions will be less defeasible than others, and some classes of

intuition may well be collectively indefeasible.

As an illustration of this point, notice that our most deep-seated intensional

intuitions about a term play a very specific role in the analytical project. This is because an

account of, say, knowledge which did not respect many of our most fundamental intensional

intuitions about this term would be unlikely to count as a theory of knowledge at all. Suppose,

for example, that we offered a theory of knowledge on which it wasn’t factive, didn’t entail

belief, didn’t require supporting evidence, was consistent with lucky true belief, didn’t require

the exercise of a relevant cognitive ability, and so on. What would make such a theory a

theory of knowledge, specifically? The point I am getting at here is that our most basic

intensional intuitions about a concept play the role of picking out the very thing that we are

trying to understand, and hence we cannot depart too far from them without losing that

which we seek.

Call our most deep-seated intensional intuitions about a concept, intensional platitudes.

The foregoing is consistent with us rejecting or revising some of the intensional platitudes as

part of pursuing the analytical project, but not with rejecting or revising the intensional

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platitudes en masse. This is the very specific sense in which intuitions can have a kind of

indefeasible standing within the analytical project.4

This point about intensional platitudes ensures that they enjoy an enhanced

epistemic role in the analytical project, since the process of reflective equilibrium undertaken

by the analytical philosopher to square all the intuitive data (and much more besides, as we

will see below) will need to pay special respect to these intuitions.5 Our intuitions can differ

in epistemic standing in other ways too. Take extensional intuitions, for example. Some

extensional intuitions can be extremely robust and thus carry a great deal of evidential

weight. The Gettier-style cases are an obvious case in point here, though it is important to

remember that even here the intuitions in question are still defeasible.6 But other cases might

be far less compelling, even though they do still elicit the relevant intuition.

The extent to which an extensional intuition carries epistemic weight can depend on

other factors too, such as the degree to which it trades on a real-life example. This is partly

why I think the Gettier case is so compelling, in that it involves a very simple everyday

scenario. Indeed, Gettier-style cases occur all the time in real life. In contrast, some

extensional intuitions trade on examples which concern far-fetched scenarios (e.g., cases that

appeal to science fiction), and some examples concern scenarios which may not even be

possible, in some suitably robust sense of ‘possible’ (e.g., metaphysically possible).7 Ceteris

paribus, the more far-fetched the example is, and particularly the more dubious the example is

in terms of its possibility, the less epistemic weight any extensional intuition based on this

case will have, for the simple reason that there is more scope to reject the example.

3. VIRTUOUS INTUITION

We have thus delineated three categories of intuition, and also shown how there is a

complex interplay between them, both in terms of determining their relationships to each

other, and in determining their respective epistemic weights. This complexity demonstrates

the need for analytical philosophers to have a great deal of critical skill if they are to

effectively make use of this intuitive data as part of forming a particular theory, such as a

theory of knowledge. This is not the only way in which skill is required, however, since I

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think it is clear that it is also required in order to properly elicit the relevant intuitional data

in the first place.

We can explore this point by delineating a further kind of category of intuitions

which concerns intuitions about the correct linguistic usage of the target term. Call this

category of intuitions, linguistic intuitions. So, for example, epistemologists might appeal to

intuitions we have about the correct usage of the word ‘knows’ in a particular conversational

context as part of the relevant evidence when formulating a theory of knowledge.

There is, of course, a close relationship between extensional intuitions about a

certain term and linguistic intuitions. Nonetheless, it is still important to distinguish them,

for although there will clearly be a great deal of overlap in the two kinds of intuitive

judgements one makes about a particular term, such judgements can come apart, in both

directions. The case of knowledge (/‘knowledge’) is no exception.

On the one hand, there can be cases where we would intuitively judge that an agent

lacks knowledge even while granting that it would be in some sense legitimate for the agent

to say that she knows. Gettier-style examples are a case in point here, in that given the

rational basis the agent possesses in support of her belief it clearly would be appropriate for

her to assert that she has knowledge, even though she in fact fails to know.

On the other hand, there can be cases where we would intuitively judge that an agent

possesses knowledge and yet nonetheless hold that for independent reasons it would not be

appropriate for her to (flatly) assert that she knows (even though this assertion would be of a

truth). An obvious example that springs to mind on this score is a case where such an

assertion, though true, would in that conversational context generate a false conversational

implicature.

We have then a subtle distinction between extensional and linguistic intuitions, and

now that this distinction is on the table it ought to be clear that part of the skill of the

analytical epistemologist will lie in determining which specific intuition is being elicited in a

particular case. For what at first appears to be an extensional intuition could prove to in fact

be a linguistic intuition, and vice versa.

This is just one way in which intellectual skill!what we will refer to as ‘intellectual

virtue’!is required when undertaking the analytical project.8 A badly constructed example

could obscure things, and so it may take a very carefully constructed case in order to draw

out the relevant extensional intuition. A poorly formulated intensional intuition might gloss

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over an important distinction, and therefore be very misleading. A failure to attend to the

ways in which the explicit usage of ‘knows’ within an example can affect our intuition about

whether an agent in an example has knowledge could muddy the philosophical waters. And

so on.9

The intellectual virtues on display here—close attention to the salient details, a keen

eye for spotting potential ambiguities in cases, and so on—will also be on display when the

analytical philosopher adroitly conducts the complex process of reflective equilibrium that is

required in order to ‘weigh-up’ all the relevant inputs to the analytical project. As noted

above, this process is complex enough even if one restricts one’s attention only to the

intuitional input. Since, as we will see below, the input to the analytical project goes beyond

intuitions, the process is even more complex still.

That it is part of the methodology of analytical epistemology to regard intellectual

virtue as being required in order to properly attend to the intuitional data is clear from

considering how analytical epistemologists respond to intuitions. Indeed, the very fact that

Gettier-style cases, when first presented, were able to shock epistemologists into seeing that

the received wisdom in the theory of knowledge was wrong demonstrates that great skill can

sometimes be required in order to elicit the relevant intuitional data. Because intuitions are

most naturally understood as a kind of ‘intellectual seeing’, it is tempting to think that the

intuitive data is manifest for all to see, but a moment’s reflection reveals that this would be a

non-sequitor.10 For as the Gettier-style cases reveal, it can in fact be quite hard to draw out this

intuitive data.11

Further support for the claim that epistemology is wedded to the idea that

intellectual virtue is required to properly elicit intuitions can be gleaned by examining how

the intuitional judgements of subjects who have been given the relevant analytical skills are

privileged over those same subjects’ first reactions to cases. Call these two types of

intuitional judgement, initial intuitions and intuitions under reflection (where, note, the latter are

still bona fide intuitional judgements, and hence are non-inferential).

To illustrate this contrast, consider first a case outside of epistemology, that of

Robert Nozick’s (1974) ‘experience machine’. This is a machine that creates an artificial life

for the subject experientially indistinguishable from ‘real’ life, in the sense that once one is in

the machine one can’t tell that one’s experiences are in fact artificially generated. Let us

stipulate that life inside the machine is significantly more pleasurable than normal life outside

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the machine. Here is the philosophical question: should one prefer an artificial life inside the

machine, with all its additional attendant pleasure, to a real life outside the machine with all

its attendant trials and tribulations?

My experience as someone who has often taught this example to students who are

encountering philosophy for the first time is that insofar as the students have any initial

opinions on this matter at all, then they tend to intuitively regard the life in the experience

machine as at least no worse than the real life, and often preferable to the real life.

Significantly, however, this judgement tends not to be stable. For example, if one asks the

students whether they would be happy for their children to live their lives in the experience

machine then most opt for the real life outside of the machine, even though they recognise

that there is a tension between this judgement and the previous judgement about the

desirability of the life in the machine. Relatedly, if one makes explicit that entering the

machine is a one-way ticket—perhaps because one’s body becomes unusable thereafter as

part of the ‘re-orientation’ process—then again students’ intuitions tend to shift towards

regarding the life outside the machine as being preferable to the life inside the machine. In

fact, once one has explored the example in some detail then the groundswell of opinion

tends to be in favour of treating the real life outside the machine as better than the artificial

life inside the machine.

Here, then, we have a case in which people’s initial verdicts about a scenario change

over time in response to questioning and further reflection. Similar cases can be found in

epistemology. For example, in my experience quite a few students introduced to

epistemology for the first time are inclined to hold that there can be knowledge of

falsehoods, though this judgement fades under questioning and further reflection.12

A model of intuition which treats intellectual virtue as a requirement to best elicit

intuitions can explain what is going on here. The process of reflecting on the example and

identifying salient details is in effect training the subject to apply the relevant intellectual

virtues so as to improve her ability to discern the relevant intuitional data. What we are

ultimately seeking from subjects is thus not their initial intuitions at all, but rather their

intuitions under reflection, where the latter (if we have done our job well enough anyway)

are the product of the application of the relevant intellectual virtues.

An interesting issue regarding this account of the role of intuition in epistemology is

what epistemic weight, if any, to attach to the initial intuitions. A hard-headed response

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would be to say ‘nothing at all’, on the basis that the corresponding intuitions under

reflection effectively ‘trump’ them. I think this would be a mistake, however. In particular, I

think that the fact that subjects’ are inclined to make the initial judgement retains some

epistemic weight, and so has a part to play in the process of reflective equilibrium which is

undertaken by the epistemologist.

Indeed, given that all intuition is defeasible, even when the product of the relevant

intellectual virtues, it would be foolhardy to discount the epistemic weight of the initial

intuitions altogether. For even if one has enough faith in the epistemic credentials of the

analytical philosophical enterprise to suppose that those trained in this enterprise have

greater skills on this score, one would still have to take into account the possibility that the

‘training’ had itself introduced error.

Now, one way in which error could be introduced via this process can be

discounted—viz., where the agents concerned only come to form their ‘intuitive’ judgement

after training because they are simply deferring to the testimony of the ‘expert’ in the room.

It is undoubtedly the case that some people will be influenced this way, but it is irrelevant for

our purposes since such judgements are not intuitions at all, on account of their being

epistemically mediated.

Still, even setting aside potential error of this sort, there is nevertheless scope for the

analytical enterprise to generate error in one’s intuitive judgements. For even if one holds

that analytical philosophy can help an agent clarify the conceptual landscape, and thereby

enable her to better form intuitive judgements, it is entirely consistent to also hold that this

process can sometimes muddle the conceptual landscape, and lead to error. Philosophers,

even philosophers who count as ‘good’ philosophers by analytical lights, have persuasively

argued for theses that have been subsequently derided. Moreover, the fact that there is

widespread disagreement in philosophy should surely give us pause when it comes to

supposing that analytical philosophy always enhances one’s evidential position when it

comes to forming intuitive judgements.13

A final issue here is the potential for there to be a substantial conflict between the

initial intuitions and the intuitions under reflection. It would be an odd epistemologist who

was entirely unconcerned about the fact that her theory of knowledge directly conflicted

with the folk’s initial intuitive judgements about knowledge. At the very least, that there is

such a disparity calls out for an explanation.

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4. NON-INTUITIONAL INPUTS TO A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

I maintain, then, that moving to a virtue-based model of intuition does not oblige one to

dismiss the epistemic weight of subjects’ initial intuitions. Interestingly, however, when one

takes into account the fact that subjects (including, possibly, one’s previous self) are inclined

to make initial intuitive judgements of a certain sort, one is in effect appealing to empirical

data. Moreover, although this data concerns subjects’ intuitions, it clearly provides a very

different input to one’s theory to that provided by one’s own intuitions under reflection. To

this extent, we can describe it as non-intuitional input to the theory of knowledge.

I don’t think there is anything puzzling about this. For notice that just as we accord

subjects’ initial intuitions some epistemic weight when formulating a theory of knowledge, so

we also accord some weight to the fact that other philosophers have different intuitions to

oneself (even though they are also intuitions under reflection). For that too is a factor to take

into account when offering a theory of knowledge, and, relatedly, something which calls out

for explanation.

In any case, given that the initial judgements made by subjects constitute empirical

data that is relevant to the epistemological enterprise, it follows that epistemologists have an

interest in the careful and systematic collection of this data. Although epistemologists have a

role to play in this regard, such a task is probably best led by other specialists who have the

specific skills that are salient to this undertaking. There is, for example, a wealth of empirical

data on the kinds of heuristics and biases that blur human reasoning, and which would

undoubtedly play a role in generating some of the intuitive responses given by subjects.14

Knowledge of these heuristics and biases would therefore be essential to the optimal

gathering of the relevant data.

A second way in which a more informed and systematic collection of this data would

be useful is in looking for whether some of the judgements about the target term are less

universal than others. ‘Knows’ is a universal lexeme, which means that it is one of the few

terms that appears in all known languages.15 Even so, there might well be widespread

divergence in the intuitive judgements offered with regard to this term which reflects

particular racial, cultural, social (etc.,) divisions. Given that many analytical philosophers get

their data in this respect from a highly unrepresentative population sample (for the most part

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their undergraduate students), there is real potential for one to discover some very surprising

empirical data on this score.16

To this extent, I think that experimental philosophy!which aims to bring the

specific expertise to bear in this regard in order to properly elicit this data!is a welcome

development.17 Indeed, given the fact that such data does have an epistemic weight within

epistemology (and, for that matter, analytical philosophy), it is odd that there hasn’t been

much interest until quite recently in appropriately collecting this data. Note, however, that

this way of thinking about experimental philosophy sees it as merely assisting contemporary

epistemology by helping it to collect better evidence of a certain type that is relevant to the

project. It does not see experimental philosophy as posing fundamental problems for the

epistemological enterprise, which is what some of its proponents claim. I will return to this

issue below.

This is not the only kind of non-intuitional input which is relevant to offering a

theory of knowledge. For example, one kind of additional data that epistemologists can

appeal to takes the form of information about the genealogy and/or teleology of the concept

in question. One aspect of this data is straightforwardly empirical. In learning something

about how the concept in fact came about we thereby have information which can

potentially play a role in helping us formulate a theory of knowledge. Of course, the

epistemic significance of this data is not straightforward, and it is also highly defeasible, but

as we saw above, that is also the case with the rest of the input to a theory of knowledge,

with the exception of the intensional platitudes.18

Note too that there is also potentially an a priori route to gaining an insight into the

genealogy and/or teleology of a concept. A good example of how this might take place is

offered in a seminal work by Edward Craig (1990). Here Craig asks us to imagine a ‘state of

nature’ in which creatures with very similar interests and cognitive capacities to our own, and

who occupy similar environments, nonetheless lack the concept of knowledge. The question

that Craig asks is what would prompt agents in such circumstances to acquire this concept?

Craig then offers us a complex, but highly plausible, answer to this question, one that

informs his own theory of knowledge. The details of such a proposal are not relevant for our

purposes; what is relevant is just that this account does seem able to offer us some input for

our theory of knowledge (defeasible input, as always), and that the input in question is of an

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a priori nature, although it does not seem to fall into any of the categories of intuitive input

noted above.19

There will be other forms of data that epistemologists can appeal to in constructing a

theory of knowledge—for example, relevant work done by cognitive scientists—but the

foregoing should suffice to demonstrate the point that we are not limited to intuition alone.20

5. THE METHODOLOGY AND GOAL OF THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

I noted earlier that the methodology of analytical epistemology is essentially the application

of a process of reflective equilibrium to the inputs just described. What the epistemologist is

seeking is a reflectively stable theory of knowledge which can accommodate all these inputs.

This is no easy task. As noted above, even within a single category of intuition-derived data

there can be conflict, and the scope for conflict once all the varieties of input!both

intuitional and non-intuitional!are taken into account is huge. The task in hand for the

epistemologist is to use her critical and logical acumen and, with a healthy dose of ingenuity,

find the best way of squaring all this data.

The result may be quite revisionary, especially since, as we noted above, the only real

constraint is that at least some of the intensional platitudes must be treated as sacrosanct.21

One would also expect there to be a fair degree of divergence amongst epistemologists in

terms of the respective reflective equilibria that they reach. For one thing, attending to all the

relevant evidence and ascribing it its due weight will be very tricky, especially since there is a

feedback loop in play here, in that the weight one ascribes to one set of evidence will

inevitably influence what weight one ascribes to other sets of evidence. I don’t think this

should surprise or (in itself anyway) concern us, since it just reminds us that analytical

philosophy is hard.

One issue that I have glossed over so far is what the epistemologist is trying to

achieve with this methodology. There is a caricature of epistemology which has it as striving

for an informative, but still fully reductive, analysis of knowledge, where this involves a

‘decomposition’ of the target term into its constituent conceptual parts without at any point

appealing to the defined notion itself. Worse, it is sometimes alleged that the concept of

knowledge being defined is to be identified with the ‘folk’ concept, such that where there is

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any significant mismatch between the theory and subjects’ initial judgements regarding the

target term then the theory is potentially in jeopardy.

I don’t deny that it would be intellectually appealing to be able to offer a fully

reductive theory of knowledge, but I think that it is a Herculean endeavour. Fortunately, the

project of offering a theory of knowledge does not stand or fall by whether it can attain this

end. In fact, I think that the actual practice of epistemologists in this regard—indeed, of

philosophers more generally when offering a theory of a particular philosophical term—is

more aimed at what P. F. Strawson (1992) referred to as an ‘elucidation’ of the target notion,

where this involves an informative account of that notion which need not be fully exhaustive

or reductive.

Two points are in order here. The first is to recognise that we are not simply trying

to offer a theory of the folk notion. That much should be clear from what we have said in

the previous sections. For while what the folk are inclined to say about knowledge (their

initial intuitions) is of course data for the theory, such data is nonetheless defeasible, and

needs to be considered in the light of other inputs into the theory, not least one’s intuitions

under reflection. Of course, we do want our theory of knowledge to give special weight to

the intensional platitudes, and one would expect these platitudes to reflect in a fundamental

way the folk usage of ‘knowledge’, so to that extent one would not expect there to be too

much of a discord between the theoretical account on offer and the folk usage. Nevertheless,

given that any particular intensional platitude is not immune to revision this does not

prevent there being a significant disparity between the folk usage and the theory account put

forward. Indeed, we would reasonably expect the theory to depart from the folk usage of

‘knowledge’, not least because the folk usage does not itself suggest a consistent theory of

this notion. The theoretical account we seek is thus likely to be a kind of ‘cleaned-up’ version

of the folk notion, albeit an account which is essentially tied to the folk notion in virtue of

the special weight that is attached to the intensional platitudes.

The second point is that a mere elucidation of a term can in fact give us just what we

seek in terms of being a theory of that term, and can even be sometimes more informative

than a reductive analysis.22 A good example in this regard is virtue epistemology.23 Suppose

that it turns out that the best theory of knowledge understands this notion in terms of the

further notion of cognitive virtue, but that it also turns out that one cannot offer a definition

of cognitive virtue which does not ultimately itself appeal to the notion of knowledge.

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Would such a theory of knowledge thereby be a failure? I don’t see why. For we would

surely have learnt something important about the nature of knowledge by recognising the

truth of this theory, even if ultimately we were not presented with a fully reductive analysis.

In particular, we would get to understand the close connections between knowledge and

virtue.24

6. TWO SOURCES OF SCEPTICISM ABOUT

CONTEMPORARY THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

This last point offers us some purchase on one particular problem that has been raised for

contemporary epistemology. According to this line of objection!most associated with the

work of Timothy Williamson (2000, ch. 1), but not exclusive to him!the theory of

knowledge as it is understood by contemporary epistemologists is flawed because it is

committed to offering a completely reductive analysis of knowledge.25 One common reason

offered for why this project is problematic is basically a form of pessimistic induction, in that

since a wide range of putatively reductive theories of knowledge have been offered since the

introduction of the Gettier-style cases to epistemology in the mid-1960s, and since none of

them has been universally accepted, so we have reason to think that the very project of

decomposing knowledge into its constituent conceptual parts is doomed. A related thought

on this score is that the kinds of theories of knowledge being proposed are increasingly

complex and ad hoc such that we have grounds to think that this is a degenerating research

programme.26

Even if we grant that contemporary epistemology is indeed focussed on offering a

completely reductive analysis of knowledge, I think we should be very suspicious of this

critique. For while there have been some very complex and arguably ad hoc accounts of

knowledge in the post-Gettier literature, there have also been some very well-motivated and

elegant accounts. In particular, modal accounts of knowledge and virtue-theoretic accounts

of knowledge have been very successful at dealing with a range of problem cases and are still

‘live’ proposals in the literature.27 In both cases they are also usually very straightforward

accounts of knowledge, and so can hardly be charged with being unnecessarily complex.28

Indeed, given the convergence of opinion in epistemology towards views of this sort, one

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actually has grounds for supposing that if there is a research programme in epistemology

which is concerned with offering a completely reductive analysis of knowledge, then it is in a

progressive rather than degenerating state.

In any case, as we have seen above, the epistemological project of offering an

account of knowledge is not wedded to providing a fully reductive analysis anyway. Indeed,

as we also noted, if, say, a virtue-theoretic proposal turned out to be the optimal account of

knowledge available, but it also turned out that one could only define cognitive virtues by

appeal to knowledge, this needn’t be a catastrophe as the proposal could still be informative.

The epistemological project of offering an account of knowledge thus does not stand or fall

in terms of whether it can give a fully reductive account of this notion.29

A more serious form of scepticism about the contemporary epistemological project

comes from a radical form of experimental philosophy, what has been called the negative

programme in experimental philosophy.30 As we have noted above, experimental philosophy in

itself poses no fundamental challenge to contemporary epistemology since it merely offers us

a way of gaining better empirical data of a kind that is already relevant to the contemporary

epistemological enterprise of offering a theory of knowledge. Viewed this way, experimental

philosophy offers us a way of enhancing the methodology of contemporary epistemology.

Some have argued, however, that the experimental philosophy programme poses a far more

serious challenge, not just to contemporary epistemology but also to the whole methodology

of analytical philosophy.

In particular, the thought is that the entire appeal to intuitions that is at the heart of

analytical philosophy is undermined by the data that has been collected by experimental

philosophers. The kind of data which experimental philosophers have in mind here includes,

for example, experiments which appear to show that subjects’ responses to cases are highly

dependent on supposedly irrelevant factors, such as their ethnicity or the order in which

cases are presented to them.31 The alleged upshot of this data is that analytical philosophers

are wrong to rely so much on intuitions, and hence should radically restrict their use of

them.32

We should notice straight off a flaw in this critique, which is that, as we have argued

above, there is much more to the project of analytical epistemology than the appeal to

intuitions about cases (i.e., extensional intuitions). Thus even if we grant the import of these

experiments, it still doesn’t follow that analytical epistemology is thereby posed anything like

16

the dramatic!indeed, potentially fatal!threat envisaged by proponents of the negative

programme.

A second issue here is that, as also noted above, analytical epistemology doesn’t put

that much epistemic weight on subjects’ first intuitive responses to cases anyway, at least in

comparison to their intuitive judgements which are the result of due consideration and

reflection. As Williamson puts the point:

“Much of the evidence for cross-cultural variation in judgements on theory experiments concerns verdicts by people without philosophical training. Yet philosophy students have to learn how to apply general concepts to specific examples with careful attention to the relevant subtleties, just as law students have to learn how to analyze hypothetical cases. Levels of disagreement over thought experiments seem to be significantly lower among fully trained philosophers than among novices.” (Williamson 2007, 191)33

I think Williamson is entirely right on this score, and I would suggest that this phenomenon

reflects the way in which philosophical training provides subjects with the skills relevant to

making appropriate intuitive judgements about cases.

Two points need to be noted here. The first is to reiterate the point I made earlier

that in responding to the negative programme in experimental philosophy in this way one is

not thereby discounting the epistemic weight of subjects’ initial intuitions altogether. For one

thing, a substantial divergence between subjects’ initial intuitions and their intuitions under

reflection is something which requires explanation.

The second point is that this response poses in effect a further challenge to the

negative programme!viz., to run further experiments which challenge even the intuitions

under reflection formed by the philosophically trained. We clearly cannot rule-out a priori

that a challenge of this sort could be effectively mounted.34 But for now at least, there is a

clear lacuna in the data supporting the negative programme in experimental philosophy.

7. CONCLUDING REMARKS

We have seen, then, that the contemporary epistemological project of offering a theory of

knowledge is not nearly as exposed to critique as some have supposed, at least once it is

properly described. Of course, there are other challenges to contemporary analytical

epistemology besides the two considered here, and I make no claim that even the rendering

17

of the epistemological project that I offer can deal with all the main problems that have been

levelled against this project.35 Still, I hope to have least shown here that there is far more to

the methodology of contemporary analytical epistemology than many suppose.36

18

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NOTES 1 Henceforth, where I talk of ‘epistemology’ or ‘philosophy’, I have in mind analytical epistemology/philosophy. 2 For a recent overview of the literature on this topic, see Pritchard (2007b; cf. Pritchard 2007c). 3 Such claims are often made by proponents of what is known as ‘knowledge-first’ epistemology. The locus classicus for this approach to knowledge is Williamson (2000). 4 For similar methodological appeals to what I am here calling intensional platitudes, see Smith (1994), Jackson (1998) and Wright (1992). 5 It would take me too far afield to defend the philosophical use of reflective equilibrium here. For an important defence of reflective equilibrium in light of a key challenge posed for this methodology by Stich (1988), see Sosa (1991, ch. 15). See also DePaul (1998) for a defence of the claim that the philosophical employment of reflective equilibrium is rational even if this methodology is unreliable. For an excellent overview of the issues regarding reflective equilibrium, see Daniels (2003). 6 Though this point is sometimes overlooked, in that Gettier-style cases are often treated as in effect decisive counterexamples to the classical account of knowledge as justified true belief. For a useful general discussion of how we should respond to counterexamples in philosophy, see Weatherson (2003). 7 A good example of a science fiction-style case in epistemology is that of the brain-in-a-vat. See, for example, Putnam (1981, ch. 1). A good example of a philosophical scenario used to elicit extensional intuitions which may concern an event which is not even metaphysically possible is the ‘swampman’ case, as proposed by Davidson (1987). 8 Some might feel a very natural aversion to treating mere cognitive skills as virtues, particularly since skills and virtues are often contrasted by key ancient philosophers, such as Aristotle. The reason the term is used here is that contemporary virtue epistemology tends to have a far more deflated conception of intellectual virtue, one on which an intellectual virtue can in certain cases be little more than a cognitive skill. See, for example, Sosa (1991) and Greco (1999). For an excellent statement of the opposing, neo-Aristotelian view of intellectual virtue, see Zagzebski (1996). 9 For two prominent defences of the idea that skill can be required to elicit certain intuitions, see Bealer (1987; 1996a; 1996b; 1998) and Sosa (1998; 2007a, ch. 3; 2007b; 2007c; 2009a). See also Williamson (2004; 2007), though note that Williamson adopts a deflationary understanding of this intuitive skill, remarking that “I am aware of no intellectual seeming beyond my conscious inclination to believe”. (Williamson 2007, 217) For some of the other key discussions of intuitions in the recent literature, see Goldman & Pust (1998), Kornblith (1998; 2007), Hintikka (1999) and Gendler (2007). For two very helpful overviews of the recent literature on intuitions, see Nagel (2007) and Lycan (2010). See also Ichikawa & Sosa (2010) and Cath (2011). 10 Indeed, some commentators argue that all intuition should be thought of as a kind of intellectual perception. See, for example, Bonjour (1998). 11 On this point about intuition sometimes requiring skill, it is worth remembering that ordinary language philosophy, which paid careful attention to the way words were actually used, was never meant to be an easy enterprise to engage in and the conclusions derived via this methodology were often held to be theoretically surprising. See Austin (1961). 12 And not just students exposed to epistemology for the first time either, since there are well-regarded professional epistemologists who hold that knowledge isn’t factive. See especially Hazlett (2010). A more subtle case in which students’ initial intuitions vary quite markedly when compared with their intuitions under reflection is that of the problem of radical scepticism. I discuss the implications of this problem for our understanding of philosophical methodology in Pritchard (forthcomingb). 13 Of course, there is one strand in recent philosophical thought which sees philosophy as the cause of philosophical problems, rather than the way of resolving such problems. Many find a quietism of this sort in the work of the later Wittgenstein, especially Wittgenstein (1961). For a recent discussion of Wittgensteinian quietism, see McDowell (2009). 14 There is an extensive literature on cognitive biases. For some key texts, see Tversky & Kahneman (1974), Kahneman, Slovic & Tversky (1982), Kahneman & Tversky (1996), and Gilovich, Griffin & Kahneman (2002). For a recent discussion of some of the epistemological implications of this work, see Rysiew (2008). 15 See, for example, Wierzbicka (2006, §2.5).

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16 See Weinberg, Nichols & Stich (2001) and Stich, Nichols & Weinberg (2003) for discussion of an influential study which appears to suggest that our judgements about the Gettier-style cases are indeed culturally subjective. 17 For a very helpful overview of the relevance of experimental philosophy to epistemology, see Weinberg (2010). See also Nagel (2007) for a related discussion. For a collection of recent papers on this topic, see Knobe & Nichols (2008). 18 See Shapin (1994), Williams (2002), Kusch (2009) and Gerken (2010) for some useful discussions of the actual genealogy of our epistemic concepts. 19 For some key discussions of Craig’s proposal, see Lane (1999), Williams (2002), Neta (2006), Greco (2007; 2008), Fricker (2007; 2010), Kusch (2009; 2011), Kappel (2010), Gelfert (2011), Henderson (2011), Kelp (2011) and Kornblith (2011). See also Pritchard, Millar & Haddock (2010, ch. 3) and Pritchard (2011). 20 An example of empirical work from the cognitive sciences that could be relevant to the epistemological project includes work by developmental psychologists on the centrality of the concept of knowledge to our conceptual repertoire. For instance, Shatz, Wellman & Silber (1983) maintain that children acquire the verb ‘knows’ before other mental verbs such as ‘thinks’ and ‘believes’. Furthermore, Bartsch & Wellman (1995) argue that children who have acquired a wider repertoire of mental verbs use ‘knows’ more frequently than any other mental verb. Such studies might be thought to offer some (highly) defeasible empirical support for a ‘knowledge-first’ epistemology of the sort defended by Williamson (2000). I am grateful to Mikkel Gerken for alerting me to this empirical literature. 21 To this extent, the model of reflective equilibrium I am suggesting for epistemology is, following Rawls (2001), wide rather than narrow. 22 See Zagzebski (1999) for an incisive discussion of this point. 23 For some of the key virtue-theoretic accounts of knowledge in the literature, see Sosa (1991; 2007a; 2009b), Zagzebski (1996; 1999) and Greco (1999; 2000; 2003; 2009). 24 I argue for this particular point in more detail in Pritchard, Millar & Haddock (2010, ch. 3). 25 McDowell (1995) represents another further influential critique of the project of offering a completely reductive analysis of knowledge. See also Pritchard, Millar & Haddock (2010, ch. 5). 26 Interestingly, this point is often supplemented with the further claim that the analyses of knowledge on offer are so complex that they make it mysterious why knowledge is the sort of thing that we value. In effect, the claim in play here is that contemporary theories of knowledge are unable to accommodate a general intuition about knowledge—viz., that it is the sort of thing that we care about. See DePaul (2009). 27 See endnote 23 for a list of some of the key virtue-theoretic accounts of knowledge. For some of the key modal accounts of knowledge in the literature, see Nozick (1981), Pritchard (2005; 2007a), Roush (2005) and Becker (2007). For a recent proposal which aims to combine the best features of both views, see Pritchard, Millar & Haddock (2010, ch. 3) and Pritchard (forthcominga). 28 And note that the claim that a good analysis of knowledge should be straightforward is far from being beyond reproach. For more discussion of the issues in this regard, see DePaul (2009). 29 Note that Williamson’s concerns about contemporary epistemological accounts of knowledge extend beyond those raised here, since he offers independent grounds for the claim that we should treat knowledge as a primitive notion which is immune to a full analysis. See Williamson (2000). For an interesting critique of Williamson’s proposal on this score!which effectively argues that Williamson is himself committed to a reductive analysis of knowledge!see Cassam (2009), to which Williamson (2009) responds. 30 Weinberg (2010) attributes this description of the radical wing of experimental philosophy to Farid Masrour. 31 See Weinberg, Nichols & Stich (2001) and Stich, Nichols & Weinberg (2003) for discussion of an experiment which appears to show that a subject’s response to a Gettier-style case can be heavily dependent on her ethnicity. See Swain & Weinberg (2008) for discussion of an experiment which appears to show that a subject’s response to cases can be heavily dependent on the order in which the cases are presented to her. 32 This is the so-called restrictionist challenge to analytical philosophy made by some proponents of experimental philosophy. For discussion, see Alexander & Weinberg (2007). 33 On this point, see also Kaupinnen (2007), Liao (2008) and Sosa (2008; 2009a). 34 As Weinberg (2010, §C.2) notes, one potential source of support for the negative programme is some of the recent empirical literature regarding the cognitive limitations of expertise more generally. If that literature could be brought to bear on the specific issue of philosophical expertise, then this might well pose a challenge to the

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methodology of analytical epistemology (and, indeed, analytical philosophy more generally). See also Pritchard (2011). 35 For example, a number of commentators have argued that contemporary epistemology is wedded to theoretical claims that are unsustainable. A claim along these general lines is famously made in Rorty (1979), who views epistemology as being allied to a faulty representationalist conception of belief. More recently, Williams (1995) has argued that contemporary epistemology is committed to a position he calls epistemological realism, and which he argues is false. In a slightly different vein, Stroud (1989; 1994) has argued that there is a deep problem which afflicts the traditional epistemological project, in that it aspires to a certain kind of philosophical explanation of knowledge which, he argues, is necessarily unavailable. 36 Thanks to David Bloor, J. Adam Carter, Stew Cohen, Axel Gelfert, Georgi Gardiner, Mikkel Gerken, Sandy Goldberg, Alvin Goldman, Peter Graham, John Greco, David Henderson, Jesper Kallestrup, Chris Kelp, Klemens Kappel, Hilary Kornblith, Joseph Kuntz, Martin Kusch, Mike Lynch, Ram Neta, Darrell Rowbottom, Shane Ryan, Ernie Sosa, Stefan Tolksdorf and Jonathan Weinberg for helpful discussion of the topics covered in this paper. This paper was written while I was in receipt of a Philip Leverhulme Prize.