Attributing knowledge, Azzouni, Jody (professor Of Philosophy, Professor Of Philosophy, Tufts University)

Azzouni also gives a fresh defense of fallibilism. Relying on lexical semantics and ordinary usage, he shows that there are no knowledge norms for assertion or action. He examines everyday cases of knowledge challenge and attribution to show many recent and popular epistemological positions are
wrong. By providing a long-sought intelligible characterization of knowledge attribution, Azzouni explains why the concept has puzzled philosophers so long, and he solves longstanding and recent puzzles that have perplexed epistemologists--including the dogmatism paradox, Gettier puzzles, and the
surprise-exam paradox.

This is a terrific book, full of surprises. For instance, Chapter 9 is full of points that are original, insightful, and useful in helping to resolve stale debates. I especially liked the points that we dont ordinarily describe someone as losing knowledge by gaining defeating evidence, that
knows is vague and tri-scoped, that vagueness neednt be explained by appeal to precise metasemantic machinery, and that Williamsons anti-luminosity argument founders on the fact that knowledge doesnt require confidence. Bravo! --Ram Neta, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill