Autonomous Knowledge: Radical Enhancement, Autonomy, and the Future of Knowing

A central conclusion developed and defended throughout the book is that epistemic autonomy is necessary for knowledge (both knowledge-that and knowledge-how) and in ways that epistemologists have not yet fully appreciated. The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 motivates (using a series of twists on Lehrer's TrueTemp case) the claim that propositional knowledge requires autonomous belief. Chapters 2 and 3 flesh out this proposal in two ways, by defending a specific form of history-sensitive externalism with respect to propositional knowledge-apt autonomous belief (Chapter 2) and by showing how the idea that knowledge requires autonomous belief―understood along the externalist lines proposed―corresponds with an entirely new class of knowledge defeaters (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 extends the proposal to (both intellectualist and anti-intellectualist) knowledge-how and performance enhancement, and in a way that combines insights from virtue epistemology with research on freedom, responsibility, and manipulation. Chapter 5 concludes with a new twist on the Value of Knowledge debate, by vindicating the value of epistemically autonomous knowledge over that which falls short, including (mere) heteronomous but otherwise epistemically impeccable justified true belief.

J. Adam Carter, Reader in Epistemology, University of Glasgow

J. Adam Carter is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where he is the deputy director the COGITO Epistemology Research Centre. Adam has published widely in epistemology, with over 100+ articles in venues such as Noûs, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, and Philosophical Studies. His current work has focused on themes including social epistemology, epistemic relativism, know-how, extended epistemology, and virtue epistemology.