Epistemology modalized / Kelly Becker.

"First published in 2007.First issued in paperback ed 2012.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [165]-170) and indexes.

1. Introduction : externalism and modalism -- 2. Process reliabilism -- 3. Sensitivity -- 4. Safety -- 5. Knowledge : reliably formed sensitive true belief -- 6. Closure and the value problem.

"There are three primary aims of the book. The first, set out in the book's introduction, is to explain how two fairly recent developments in philosophy, externalism and modalism, provide the basis for a promising account of knowledge - an account that achieves anti-skeptical results and avoids Gettier-style counterexamples that are based on an agent having warranted beliefs that are merely luckily true. Epistemological externalism is the thesis that not all the factors that make a true belief a case of knowledge need to be cognitively accessible or "internal" to the agent. Modalism, as the author construes it, is the use of possible worlds talk in clarifying what would or might be the case and what is necessarily so." "The second objective is to work through the different modalized epistemologies extant in the literature, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, with a view toward constructing a working theory. Finally, the author proposes the theory that knowledge is reliably formed, sensitive true belief, and defends the theory against objections."--BOOK JACKET.