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Single Idea 19530

[from 'Knowledge First (and reply)' by Timothy Williamson, in 11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 7. Knowledge First ]

Full Idea

A neutral state covering both perceiving and misperceiving (or remembering and misrembering) is not somehow more basic than perceiving, for what unifies the case of each neutral state is their relation to the successful state.

Gist of Idea

A neutral state of experience, between error and knowledge, is not basic; the successful state is basic

Source

Timothy Williamson (Knowledge First (and reply) [2014], p.5-6)

Book Reference

'Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (2nd ed)', ed/tr. Steup/Turri/Sosa [Wiley Blackwell 2014], p.5


A Reaction

An alternative is Disjunctivism, which denies the existence of a single neutral state, so that there is nothing to unite the two states, and they don't have a dependence relation. Why can't there be a prior family of appearances, some of them successful?