Knowing what you can do: An exploration-based epistemology of ability

We have a lot of knowledge of our own abilities. Explaining how we acquire such knowledge raises a number of interesting challenges. In particular, it is difficult to explain how we begin to learn about our robust abilities to perform intentional actions without initial access to evidence in the form of intentional performances. We propose a solution to this problem: we gain elementary evidence of our own abilities by engaging in unintentional behaviours (in particular, exploration and imitation) in the process of developing those very abilities. We develop a three-stage theory that explicates how we get from evidence in the form of such unintentional behaviours to knowledge of our own robust abilities.