Knowledge first, all the way down
Abstract Knowledge‐first philosophy has fewer adherents than it should. It has the potential to address many of the common problems facing epistemologists, but it is counter‐intuitive in some respects. In this paper, I make the case that the underlying metaphysics of Timothy Williamson's account of knowledge‐first is responsible for some of this counter‐intuitiveness. I argue that we ought to understand knowledge not as an irreducible factive mental attitude towards true propositions, but as an irreducible factive relation with the world.
Authors
- Tess Dewhurst (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7535-5389)
Institutions
- Rhodes University (ZA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Philosophical Investigations
- Published
- 2025-05-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/phin.12462
- Primary Topic
- Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00