Abstract:
Beware of Safety:
Philosophers have suggested that a belief has to be
'safe' in order to qualify as knowledge. This means that in order to know
something, one's belief need not only be true it, furthermore, needs to remain
true in 'close-by possible worlds'. In other words, a belief, if true, is
safely true, if it could not have easily been wrong. In my talk I argue against
such views. I ague that a concern for the safety of our beliefs would get
things 'the wrong way round'. This talk is of interest to those who want to
know more about knowledge and about why philosophers tend to make mistakes
(myself, of course, excepted.)
