Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:16:31.592Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Threshold Problem, the Cluster Account, and the Significance of Knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2020

Daniel Immerman Open the ORCID record for Daniel Immerman [Opens in a new window]
Daniel Immerman*
Affiliation:
Cycorp, Austin, Texas, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The threshold problem is the task of adequately answering the question: “Where does the threshold lie between knowledge and lack thereof?” I start this paper by articulating two conditions for solving it. The first is that the threshold be neither too high nor too low; the second is that the threshold accommodate the significance of knowledge. In addition to explaining these conditions, I also argue that it is plausible that they can be met. Next, I argue that many popular accounts of knowledge cannot meet them. In particular, I lay out a number of problems that standard accounts of knowledge face in trying to meet these conditions. Finally, near the end of this paper, I argue that there is one sort of account that seems to evade these problems. This sort of account, which is called a cluster account of knowledge, says that knowledge is to be accounted for in terms of truth, belief and a cluster of epistemic properties and also that knowledge doesn't require having all members of the cluster, but merely some subset.

Keywords

threshold problemsignificance of knowledgecluster account of knowledge
Type
Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 693 - 710
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, J.E. (2002). Belief's Own Ethics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, D.M. (1973). Belief, Truth, and Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BonJour, L. (2002). Epistemology. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
BonJour, L. (2003). ‘The Regress Problem and Foundationalism.’ In Epistemic Justification: Internalism vs. Externalism, Foundations vs. Virtues, pp. 5–96, 173–200. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
BonJour, L. (2010 a). ‘Externalism/Internalism.’ In Dancy, J., Sosa, E. and Steup, M. (eds), A Companion to Epistemology, 2nd edition, pp. 364–369. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
BonJour, L. (2010 b). ‘The Myth of Knowledge.’ Philosophical Perspectives 24, 57–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. (2012). ‘Practical Reasoning, Decision Theory, and Anti-intellectualism.’ Episteme 9(1), 43–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. (2014). ‘Impurism, Practical Reasoning, and the Threshold Problem.’ Noûs 48(1), 179–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. (2004). ‘Knowledge, Assertion, and Practical Reasoning.’ Philosophical Issues 14(1), 482–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. (2016). ‘Theorizing about the Epistemic.’ Inquiry 59(7–8), 839–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, E. (1990). Knowledge and the State of Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, M. (2017). ‘Word Frequency: Based on 450 Million Word COCA Corpus.’ www.wordfrequency.info.Google Scholar
DeRose, K. (1992). ‘Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52(4), 913–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeRose, K (2009). The Case for Contextualism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douven, I. (2006). ‘Assertion, Knowledge, and Rational Credibility.’ Philosophical Review 115(4), 449–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fantl, J. and McGrath, M. (2002). ‘Evidence, Pragmatics and Justification.’ Philosophical Review 111(1), 67–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fantl, J. and McGrath, M. (2009). Knowledge in an Uncertain World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, R. and Conee, E. (1985). ‘Evidentialism.’ Philosophical Studies 48, 15–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedman, K.L. (2017). ‘Quasi-evidentialism: Interests, Justification, and Epistemic Virtue’. Episteme 14(2), 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerken, M. (2015). ‘The Roles of Knowledge Ascriptions in Epistemic Assessment.’ European Journal of Philosophy 23(1), 141–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, A. (1975). ‘Innate Knowledge.’ In Stich, S.P. (ed.), Innate Ideas, pp. 111–120. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. (1979). ‘What is Justified Belief?’ In Pappas, G. (ed.), Justification and Knowledge, pp. 1–23. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
Greco, J. (2010). Achieving Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, S.R. (2011). ‘On Intellectualism in Epistemology.’ Mind 120(479), 705–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannon, M. (2014). ‘Fallibilism and the Value of Knowledge.’ Synthese 191, 1119–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannon, M. (2015). ‘The Importance of Knowledge Attributions.’ Philosophy Compass 10(12), 856–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannon, M. (2017). ‘A Solution to Knowledge's Threshold Problem.’ Philosophical Studies 174, 607–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawthorne, J. (2004). Knowledge and Lotteries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hawthorne, J. and Stanley, J. (2008). ‘Knowledge and Action.’ Journal of Philosophy 105(10), 571–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, S. (2002). Good Knowledge, Bad Knowledge: On Two Dogmas of Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hetherington, S. (2006). ‘Knowledge's Boundary Problem.’ Synthese 150, 41–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huemer, M. (2001). Skepticism and the Veil of Perception. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Kappel, K. (2011). ‘On Saying that Someone Knows: Themes from Craig.’ In Haddock, A., Millar, A. and Pritchard, D.H. (eds), Social Epistemology, pp. 69–88. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelp, C. (2011). ‘What's the Point of “Knowledge” Anyway?’ Episteme 8(1), 53–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvanvig, J.L. (2003). The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, K. and Paxson, T. (1969). ‘Knowledge: Undefeated Justified True Belief.’ Journal of Philosophy 66, 225–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. (1996). ‘Elusive Knowledge.’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74(4), 549–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCain, K. (2011). Inference to the Best Explanation and the External World: A Defense of the Explanationist Response to Skepticism. PhD thesis, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Myers-Schulz, B. and Schwitzgebel, E. (2013). ‘Knowing that p Without Believing that p.’ Noûs 47(2), 371–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, R. (1981). Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Oxford University Press (2011). The Oxford English Corpus: Facts about the Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Plantinga, A. (1993). Warrant and Proper Function. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pritchard, D. (2005). Epistemic Luck. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pritchard, D. (2009). ‘Knowledge, Understanding and Epistemic Value.’ Epistemology, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements 64, 19–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, B. (2012). ‘Resisting Encroachment.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85(2), 465–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rysiew, P. (2012). ‘Epistemic Scorekeeping.’ In Brown, J. and Gerken, M. (eds), Knowledge Ascriptions, pp. 270–93. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shope, R.K. (1983). The Analysis of Knowing: A Decade of Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sosa, E. (1999). ‘How to Defeat Opposition to Moore.’ Philosophical Perspectives 13, 141–53.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. (2005). Knowledge and Practical Interests. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, M. (2009). ‘The (Mostly Harmless) Inconsistency of Knowledge Ascriptions.’ Philosophers’ Imprint 9(1), 1–25.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. (2000). Knowledge and its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar