Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional Action

Epistemologists have long believed that epistemic luck undermines propositional knowledge. Action theorists have long believed that agentive luck undermines intentional action. But is there a relationship between agentive luck and epistemic luck? While agentive luck and epistemic luck have been wide...

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Main Authors: Carlotta Pavese, Paul Henne
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Michigan Publishing 2023-11-01
Series:Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy
Online Access:https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/4666/
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author Carlotta Pavese
Paul Henne
author_facet Carlotta Pavese
Paul Henne
author_sort Carlotta Pavese
collection DOAJ
description Epistemologists have long believed that epistemic luck undermines propositional knowledge. Action theorists have long believed that agentive luck undermines intentional action. But is there a relationship between agentive luck and epistemic luck? While agentive luck and epistemic luck have been widely thought to be independent phenomena, we argue that agentive luck has an epistemic dimension. We present several thought experiments where epistemic luck seems to undermine both knowledge-how and intentional action and we report experimental results that corroborate these judgments. These findings have implications for the role of knowledge in a theory of intentional action and for debates about the nature of knowledge-how and the significance of knowledge representation in folk psychology.
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spelling doaj-art-adc36fef74a644c8ac34e002689d37212025-08-20T02:43:43ZengMichigan PublishingErgo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy2330-40142023-11-0110010.3998/ergo.4666Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional ActionCarlotta Pavese0Paul Henne1Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell UniversityDepartment of Philosophy, Lake Forest CollegeEpistemologists have long believed that epistemic luck undermines propositional knowledge. Action theorists have long believed that agentive luck undermines intentional action. But is there a relationship between agentive luck and epistemic luck? While agentive luck and epistemic luck have been widely thought to be independent phenomena, we argue that agentive luck has an epistemic dimension. We present several thought experiments where epistemic luck seems to undermine both knowledge-how and intentional action and we report experimental results that corroborate these judgments. These findings have implications for the role of knowledge in a theory of intentional action and for debates about the nature of knowledge-how and the significance of knowledge representation in folk psychology.https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/4666/
spellingShingle Carlotta Pavese
Paul Henne
Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional Action
Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy
title Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional Action
title_full Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional Action
title_fullStr Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional Action
title_full_unstemmed Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional Action
title_short Epistemic Luck, Knowledge-How, and Intentional Action
title_sort epistemic luck knowledge how and intentional action
url https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/4666/
work_keys_str_mv AT carlottapavese epistemicluckknowledgehowandintentionalaction
AT paulhenne epistemicluckknowledgehowandintentionalaction