Contemporary philosophy · 1940–

Ernest Sosa

Sosa models knowledge as successful intellectual performance: a belief counts well when it is true because it was competently formed.

Ernest Sosa in a shaded warm-grey editorial portrait, holding an arrow low with its fletching rendered muted gold.

Ernest Sosa is a Cuban-American philosopher whose work has shaped contemporary epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of action. He is a founder of virtue epistemology and developed the influential idea that apt belief is accurate because it manifests intellectual competence.

KnowledgeAgency

The question he enters

What is the difference between hitting the target through skill and hitting it because a gust of wind corrects a bad shot?

Virtue epistemologyAnalytic philosophyEpistemology

The central move

Judge belief as a performance

Sosa analyses attempts by accuracy, adroitness and aptness. A belief is apt when it is true because it was produced competently, not merely true alongside competence by luck. Reflective knowledge adds an apt perspective on the reliability and situation of that first-order performance.

Key ideas

Terms that carry the argument.

Apt belief: A true belief whose accuracy is attributable to the believer's epistemic competence.
Accuracy: The success dimension of a belief-performance: the belief is true.
Adroitness: The competence or skill displayed in forming the belief.
Animal and reflective knowledge: First-order apt belief contrasted with knowing from an apt higher-order perspective on one's competence and situation.

Where the view strains

Objections and limits.

Competence can coexist with environmental luck

Fake-barn and similar cases test whether success through ordinary skill is enough when the surrounding environment is deceptive.

The archery model may simplify inquiry

Belief often arises socially and collaboratively, making it difficult to assign one agent, aim or competence to the success.

Sources and routes

Read the work. Follow the argument.

Primary texts