Day 6: Causal Analyses of Knowledge

•    Questions/Review

•    Causal Analysis of Knowledge

•    Possible Strengths

•    Possible Concerns

•    Externalism, Breaking with Tradition

•    Read IE 87-106.

Causal Analysis of Knowledge

•     S knows that p iff

   (i) p is true

   (ii) S believes that p

   (iii) what p is about is causally connected in the appropriate way with S’s belief that p.

Past, Present, Future

•      Why that language of “in the appropriate way…”?

•      Knowledge of past and present states of affairs tend to be treated in one way

•      Knowledge of the future tends to be treated in another way (since a story is needed about how a future event is causally connected with a present belief)

–  Eg of how to handle knowledge of the future

Possible Strengths

•     A possible solution to the Gettier problem

•     Historical knowledge

•     Other examples where the analysis appears plausible (animal or pre-reflective forms of knowledge)

Possible Concerns

•      What about mathematical knowledge (and, more generally, knowledge of non-causally efficacious entities, properties, relations, or states of affairs)?

•      What about deviant causal chains?

–  example

•      How about outright counterexamples?

–  example

Externalism, Breaking with Tradition

•      What is internalism?

•      What is externalism?

•      What sort of position is causal theory?

•      How does causal theory compare with more traditional approaches?