Explaining Knowledge

Abstract

The book presents a novel, abductivist theory of knowledge and argues for it over its two main rivals: safety theory and causal explanationism. According to abductivism, a belief constitutes knowledge when, given the way it is formed or maintained, the best explanation of its being true rather than false lies in the facts of the matter themselves rather than in adventitious factors. The abductivist theory outperforms its rivals in that it can handle a wider range of test cases and offers greater explanatory power. Unlike causal explanationism, it can handle barn cases and account for mathematical knowledge. Unlike the safety theory, it provides superior analyses of knowledge based on false assumptions, the lottery paradox, and epistemic Frankfurt-style cases.