An Essay on Inferential Knowledge

By Rodrigo Martins Borges

Under what conditions do we have inferential knowledge? I propose and defend the

following principle: S knows that p via inference only if S knows all the premises

essentially involved in her inference in support of p - "KFK" for short. Even

though KFK is at least tacitly endorsed by many figures in the history of

philosophy, from Aristotle through Descartes, and Kant to Bertrand Russell -and,

more recently, by David Armstrong - KFK has fallen into disfavor among

epistemologists over the past fifty years. In response to Edmund Gettier's legendary

paper, many have proposed views according to which one's reasoning is a

source of knowledge even if one fails to know some or all premises essentially

involved in one's reasoning, while others have given up offering a theory of inferential

knowledge and have focused on reasoning as a source of justified belief

instead. Unfortunately, these accounts that deal with inferential knowledge are

problematic; they cannot, for example, fully explain our common practice of evaluating

negatively inferences with unknown premises.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CNQGSC5H
• ISBN13: 9798869003157
• Release Date: November 2023
• Publisher: Pradeep Kandimalla
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"