At the threshold of knowledge

Daniel Rothschild, Levi Spectre

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We explore consequences of the view that to know a proposition your rational credence in the proposition must exceed a certain threshold. In other words, to know something you must have evidence that makes rational a high credence in it. We relate such a threshold view to Dorr et al.’s (Philosophical Studies 170(2):277–287, 2014) argument against the principle they call fair coins: “If you know a coin won’t land tails, then you know it won’t be flipped.” They argue for rejecting fair coins because it leads to a pervasive skepticism about knowledge of the future. We argue that the threshold view of evidence and knowledge gives independent grounds to reject fair coins.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)449-460
Number of pages12
JournalPhilosophical Studies
Volume175
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Feb 2018

Keywords

  • Epistemological skepticism about the future
  • Evidence
  • Inference
  • Knowledge
  • Probability
  • Rational-belief
  • Thresholds
  • Tolerance principle

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Philosophy

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