Timmons, Mark
Philosophy Department, Arizona State University
Greco, John
Philosophy Department, Fordham University
Mele, Alfred
Philosophy Department, Florida State University
Print publication date: 2007 (this edition)
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2007
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-531195-2
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311952.003.0009
Elizabeth Fricker
This chapter addresses Audi's work on testimony, focusing on two theses: the thesis that testimony-based knowledge requires the attester to have knowledge, and the thesis that a knowledgeable attester and the absence of defeaters are jointly sufficient for testimony-based knowledge. It argues that Audi is not entitled to accept the first thesis-in particular, that his supporting reliabilist argument does not succeed. Moreover, the chapter argues that given Audi's account of testimony, he can give no rationale for the first thesis that does not bring it into conflict with the second. Fricker closes by offering her own rationale for the first thesis.
Keywords: testimony,
epistemology,
knowledge,
reliabilism,
trust
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311952.003.0009