•  34
    Epistemology today: A perspective in retrospect (review)
    Philosophical Studies 40 (3). 1981.
    According to the main tradition, knowledge is either direct or indirect: direct when it intuits some perfectly obvious fact of introspection or a priori necessity; indirect when based on deductive proof stemming ultimately from intuited premises. Simple and compelling though it is, this Cartesian conception of knowledge must be surmounted to avoid skepticism. Seeing that the straight and narrow of deductive proof leads nowhere, C. I. Lewis wisely opts for a highroad of probabilistic inference. B…Read more
  •  3
    The essentials of persons
    Dialectica 53 (3-4): 227-41. 1999.
    This paper tries to clarify the nature of philosophical questions as to the ontological nature of things, especially persons. It considers implications of an Aristotelian account, which leads to an ontology that makes subjects and other things epistemologically remote. This makes the account doubtfully reconcilable with the special epistemic relation that each of us has to oneself, via for example the cogito.
  •  62
    A virtue epistemology
    Oxford University Press. 2007.
    Ernest Sosa argues for two levels of knowledge, the animal and the reflective, each viewed as a distinctive human accomplishment.
  •  17
    Rational intuition: Bealer on its nature and epistemic status
    Philosophical Studies 81 (2-3): 151--162. 1996.
    A discussion of George Bealer's conception and defense of rational intuition as a basis of philosophical knowledge, under three main heads: a) the phenomenology of intellectual intuition; b) the status of such intuition as a basic source of evidence, and the explanation of what gives it that status; and c) the defense of intuition against those who would reject it and exclude it on principle from the set of valid sources of evidence.
  •  11
    On Reflective Knowledge: replies to Battaly and Reed
    Synthese 188 (2): 309-321. 2012.
    This article is a reply to Baron Reed and Heather Battaly, two critics in a book symposium on my Reflective Knowledge. The reply to Reed concerns the main content and structure of Descartes's epistemology. The reply to Battaly concerns how best to deal with epistemic circularity
  •  3
    Experience and Intentionality
    Philosophical Topics 14 (1): 67-83. 1986.
  •  3
    Summing Up
    In Knowing Full Well, Princeton University Press. pp. 159-160. 2010.
  •  11
    Judgment & Agency
    Oxford University Press UK. 2015.
    Ernest Sosa extends his distinctive approach to epistemology, intertwining issues concerning the role of the will in judgment and belief with issues of epistemic evaluation. Questions about skepticism and the nature of knowledge are at the forefront. The answers defended are new in their explicit and sustained focus on judgment and epistemic agency. While noting that human knowledge trades on distinctive psychological capacities, Sosa also emphasizes the role of the social in human knowledge. Ba…Read more
  •  4
    Reliability and
    In Tamar Gendler & John Hawthorne (eds.), Conceivability and Possibility, Oxford University Press. pp. 369. 2002.
  •  7
    Ontological and conceptual relativity and the self
    In Michael J. Loux & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford handbook of metaphysics, Oxford University Press. 2003.
    This chapter takes up, in six sections, issues of realism and of ontological and conceptual relativity. Section 1 briefly lays out the kind of absolutist realism of interest in what follows. Section 2 considers arguments against ordinary commonsense entities such as bodies, and for the view that subjects enjoy a superior ontological position. No such argument is found persuasive. I find no good argument against ordinary bodies or other common-sense entities, nor any good argument that subjects e…Read more
  •  15
    Dreams and Skeptics
    Philosophic Exchange 35 (1). 2005.
    This paper compares the relative merits of perceptual beliefs and introspective beliefs in the context of dream arguments for skepticism. It is argued that introspective beliefs are not epistemically privileged over perceptual beliefs.
  •  10
  •  9
    Replies to Tomberlin, Kornblith, Lehrer
    Philosophical Issues 10 (1). 2000.
  •  1
    Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 56 (3): 653-656. 2003.
    The Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy was held in Boston in August 1998. Twice in this century has there been a philosophy world congress in the United States, both times in Boston. Congresses have long been held every five years, but mostly in France, Germany, Russia, England, and other European countries. Aside from the two in this country, only one had previously been held in the Americas, in Mexico. The organization responsible for holding such congresses is, and has long been, the Fede…Read more
  •  50
    How to defeat opposition to Moore
    Philosophical Perspectives 13 137-49. 1999.
    What modal relation must a fact bear to a belief in order for this belief to constitute knowledge of that fact? Externalists have proposed various answers, including some that combine externalism with contextualism. We shall find that various forms of externalism share a modal conception of “sensitivity” open to serious objections. Fortunately, the undeniable intuitive attractiveness of this conception can be explained through an easily confused but far preferable notion of “safety.” The denouem…Read more
  •  7
    The Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher
    with Robin Haack and Nicholas Rescher
    Philosophical Quarterly 31 (123): 172. 1981.
  •  19
    Value Matters in Epistemology
    Journal of Philosophy 107 (4): 167-190. 2010.
    In what way is knowledge better than merely true belief? That is a problem posed in Plato’s Meno. A belief that falls short of knowledge seems thereby inferior. It is better to know than to get it wrong, of course, and also better than to get it right by luck rather than competence. But how can that be so, if a true belief will provide the same benefits? In order to get to Larissa you do not need to know the way. A true belief will get you there just as well. Is it really always better to know t…Read more
  •  13
    Causation and conditionals (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 1975.
    Mackie, J. L. Causes and conditions.--Taylor, R. The metaphysics of causation.--Scriven, M. Defects of the necessary condition analysis of causation.--Kim, J. Causes and events: Mackie on causation.--Anscombe, G. E. M. Causality and determination.--Davidson, D. Causal relations.--Wright, G. H. von. On the logic and epistemology of the causal relation.--Ducasse, C. J. On the nature and the observability of the causal relation.--Sellars, W. S. Counterfactuals.--Chisholm, R. M. Law statements and c…Read more
  •  6
    Replies to commentators on A Virtue Epistemology
    Philosophical Studies 144 (1): 137-147. 2009.
    Paul Boghossian discusses critically my account of intuition as a source of epistemic status. Stewart Cohen takes up my views on skepticism, on dreams, and on epistemic competence and competences and their relation to human knowledge. Hilary Kornblith focuses on my animal/reflective distinction, and, along with Cohen, on my comparison between how dreams might mislead us and how other bad epistemic contexts can do so. In this paper I offer replies to my three critics.
  • Philosophical Issues, Philosophy of Language (edited book)
    Wiley-Blackwell. 2007.
    Some of the most distinguished active contributors to the field join together for a collection of their most recent work. Brings together important new papers by many of the most distinguished philosophers of language Takes up some of the central issues in the field in recent years Includes some of the best cutting-edge work in philosophy of language
  •  5
    Goldman’s Reliabilism and Virtue Epistemology
    Philosophical Topics 29 (1-2): 383-400. 2001.
  •  9
    Essays on the philosophy of Roderick M. Chisholm (edited book)
    with Roderick M. Chisholm
    Rodopi. 1979.
  •  10
  •  4
    Boghossian’s Fear of Knowledge (review)
    Philosophical Studies 141 (3). 2008.