The Search for the Source of Epistemic Good

Abstract

To explain why knowledge is better than mere true belief is remarkably difficultI call this Zagzebski calls this “the value problem,” and most forms of reliabilism cannot handle it. This chapter argues that the value problem is more general than a problem for reliabilism, infecting a host of different theories, including some that are internalist. The chapter aims to answer two questions: (1) What makes knowing p better than merely truly believing p? and (2) What makes some instances of knowing good enough to make the investigation of knowledge worthy of so much attention? The answer involves the connection between the good of believing truths of certain kinds and a good life. The kind of value that makes knowledge a fitting object of extensive philosophical inquiry is not independent of moral value and the wider values of a good life.