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209Intuitions and meaning divergencePhilosophical Psychology 23 (4): 419-426. 2010.Survey results are in the first instance utterances, which require interpretation. Moreover, when the results seem to involve disagreement in intuitive responses to a thought experiment, the results are most directly responsive to the scenario as envisaged by the particular subject, where the text of the example can give rise to relevantly different scenarios, depending on how the scenario is shaped by the subjects involved, under the guidance of the text. All of this opens up a defense of intui…Read more
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98Serious philosophy and freedom of spiritJournal of Philosophy 84 (12): 707-726. 1987.I wish to lay out a view of “serious” philosophy, and to consider recent attacks on that view from the side of the “free spirited” philosophy: deconstruction and textualism, hermeneutics, critical theory, and the new pragma-tism. Without defining what all forms of freedom have in common, I shall draw from them a combined critique against seriousness. I will also examine, occasionally and in passing, positive ideas conjured up by the free. But mainly I wish to consider their combined critique of …Read more
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24Knowledge in Perspective: Selected Essays in EpistemologyPhilosophical Review 102 (3): 421. 1993.
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104Nature unmirrored, epistemology naturalizedSynthese 55 (1). 1983.A. Knowledge and Justification: The nature of epistemic justification and its supervenience.B. Understanding and Validation: Two projects of epistemology, one to understand justification, the other to promote it.
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117Précis of Knowing Full Well (Princeton University Press, 2011)Philosophical Studies 166 (3): 597-598. 2013.
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284Hypothetical reasoningJournal of Philosophy 64 (10): 293-305. 1967.In his important monograph, Hypothetical Reasoning, Nicholas Rescher develops a modal theory in order to throw some light on the nature of hypothetical reasoning and on the so-called "problem of counterfactual conditionals." I should like both to expound the theory and consider its application.
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1051The Raft and the Pyramid: Coherence versus Foundations in the Theory of KnowledgeMidwest Studies in Philosophy 5 (1): 3-26. 1980.
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114Generic reliabilism and virtue epistemologyPhilosophical Issues 2 79-92. 1992.Problems for Generic Reliabilism lead to a more specific account of knowledge as involving the exercise of intellectual virtues or faculties.
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99Replies to Ram Neta, James Van Cleve, and Crispin Wright for a book symposium on reflective knowledge (OUP, 2009)Philosophical Studies 153 (1): 43-59. 2011.Replies to Ram Neta, James Van Cleve, and Crispin Wright for a book symposium on Reflective Knowledge (OUP, 2009).
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2344Epistemic Justification: Internalism Vs. Externalism, Foundations Vs. VirtuesWiley-Blackwell. 2003.Ever since Plato it has been thought that one knows only if one's belief hits the mark of truth and does so with adequate justification. The issues debated by Laurence BonJour and Ernest Sosa concern mostly the nature and conditions of such epistemic justification, and its place in our understanding of human knowledge. Presents central issues pertaining to internalism vs. externalism and foundationalism vs. virtue epistemology in the form of a philosophical debate. Introduces students to fundame…Read more
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114Knowledge in Perspective: Selected Essays in EpistemologyCambridge University Press. 1991.Ever since Plato, philosophers have faced one central question: what is the scope and nature of human knowledge? In this volume the distinguished philosopher Ernest Sosa collects essays on this subject written over a period of twenty-five years. All the major topics of contemporary epistemology are covered: the nature of propositional knowledge; externalism versus internalism; foundationalism versus coherentism; and the problem of the criterion. 'Sosa is one of the most prominent and most import…Read more
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125Timothy Williamson's Knowledge and its LimitsIn Patrick Greenough & Duncan Pritchard (eds.), Williamson on Knowledge, Oxford University Press. pp. 203--16. 2009.
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96Classical analysisJournal of Philosophy 80 (11): 695-710. 1983.The first paragraph of the article reads: "Classical analysis is concerned neither with cataloguing usage nor with intellectual therapy (except of course by aiming to satisfy curiosity and remove puzzlement). Of recent sorts of analysis, it's the attempt to find the "logical structure of the world" or the "logical form" of various facts that chiefly claims our attention. But philosophers in every period have been absorbed by such analysis. Think of the Greek search for real definitions. Or think…Read more
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147Knowing Full WellPrinceton University Press. 2010.In this book, Ernest Sosa explains the nature of knowledge through an approach originated by him years ago, known as virtue epistemology. Here he provides the first comprehensive account of his views on epistemic normativity as a form of performance normativity on two levels. On a first level is found the normativity of the apt performance, whose success manifests the performer's competence. On a higher level is found the normativity of the meta-apt performance, which manifests not necessarily f…Read more
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2'Two False Dichotomies: Foundationalism/Coherentism and Internalism/Externalism'In Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.), Pyrrhonian Skepticism, Oxford University Press. pp. 146--160. 2004.
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3A Virtue EpistemologyPhilosophical Studies 143 (3): 427-440. 2009.In my remarks, I discuss Sosa's attempt to deal with the sceptical threat posed by dreaming. Sosa explores two replies to the problem of dreaming scepticism. First, he argues that, on the imagination model of dreaming, dreaming does not threaten the safety of our beliefs. Second, he argues that knowledge does not require safety, but a weaker condition which is not threatened by dreaming skepticism. I raise questions about both elements of his reply.
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108Davidson's thinking causesIn John Heil & Alfred R. Mele (eds.), Mental Causation, Oxford University Press. 1993.
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3033. reflective knowledge in the best circlesIn Steven Luper (ed.), Essential Knowledge: Readings in Epistemology, Longman. pp. 324. 2003.
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4Interdisciplinary Core PhilosophyWiley-Blackwell. 2009.This collection includes papers that show some of the bearing of indisciplinary work on central questions of philosophy. Three main core subdisciplines are included, and the book is divided into corresponding sections: epistemology, ethics, and metaphysics Focuses on the core areas of Philosophy: epistemology, ethics, and metaphysics. Shows how interdisciplinary work can have important bearing even here