The fact that these scientific theories have a fine track record of successful prediction and explanation speaks for … - Hilary Kornblith

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The wise learn from the mistakes of others, it's the fool that wants to make their own mistakes.

Hilary Kornblith

The fact that these scientific theories have a fine track record of successful prediction and explanation speaks for itself. (Which is not to say that I don't directly discuss the work of those philosophers who would disagree. ) But even if we grant this, many will argue that scientific knowledge in humans, and, indeed, reflective knowledge in general, is quite different in kind from the knowledge we see in other animals.

Animal, Kind, Record, Speaks, Successful, Track

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Chemists in earlier centuries were quite interested in the nature of acids. They had no interest in analysing their concept of acid. After all, they knew that their understanding of acids was at a fairly primitive level, and what they wanted to do was understand something about the world better - the nature of acidity - not something about their own concepts.

Concept, Levels, Quite, Understand, Understanding, World

But there is no doubt that my own views on this are, in quite a number of ways, very different from those of Quine.

Views, Numbers, Doubt, Quite, Different

Bealer argues that the kind of naturalistic view which Quine holds will rob him of the ability to make the normative claims which (many) naturalists wish to make in epistemology. I don't think this is right about Quine, but I'm certain it's not right about my own view. To the extent that I can show that talk of knowledge is firmly rooted within empirical theories where it plays an important explanatory role, I thereby demonstrate its naturalistic credentials.

Knowledge, Naturalists, Play, Thereby, Thinking, Views

Bealer has a number of reasons for thinking that a naturalistic epistemology is self-undermining. Let me focus on one of these. (I've tried to take on all of them in the first chapter of Knowledge and Its Place in Nature. )

Bealer, Epistemology, Number, Numbers, Self, Thinking

In my view, since the case can be made that knowledge too is a natural kind, the role of pretheoretical intuitions is similarly diminished in epistemology.

Epistemology, Intuition, Knowledge, Pretheoretical, Roles, Views