On Translating the Sensitivity Condition to the Possible Worlds Idiom in Different Ways

Abstract

Abstract The sensitivity account of knowledge is a modal epistemology, according to which S knows that p only if S's belief in p is sensitive in the sense that S would not believe that p if p were false. There are different ways to state the sensitivity condition by means of a possible worlds heuristic. The sensitivity account is thus rendered into different versions. This paper examines cases of knowledge and cases of luckily true beliefs (e.g., the Gettier cases) and argues that no version of the sensitivity account accommodates all cases. Therefore, the account is unsuccessful as an account of knowledge.