The unconscious generation of testimonial knowledge

Abstract This paper explores the role of unconscious attentional processing in the generation of testimonial knowledge. In considering debates between transmission theorists and generativists within the epistemology of testimony, I defend generativism in virtue of its being considerably less limited in scope than the transmission account. However, current generativist accounts largely concern themselves with the role of conscious inference in the generation of testimonial knowledge. In defending a generative account of testimonial knowledge that encapsulates the role of unconscious inference via attentional processing, I seek to expand the scope of epistemic content that can fall under the category “testimonial knowledge”.