The Irreflexivity of Knowledge

Abstract

Treating knowing-that as a relation can misleadingly suggest that knowing something is like kicking something, i.e. that knowing is a simple two-termed relation between knower and known. Also, it can falsely imply that when we claim knowledge, or attribute knowledge to someone else, we are simply describing how someone stands in relation to the world. Both pitfalls can be avoided by making it clear that to claim or attribute knowledge is, in part, to assess how what is known stands in relation to the evidence, how the knower’s evidence stands in relation to what is known, and how the knower’s evidence stands in relation to the rest of the evidence. If we remember this, we shall not be tempted to treat knowing as a two-termed relation and we shall avoid treating a knowledge claim as a mere description.