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9 - Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2009

Jonathan L. Kvanvig
Affiliation:
University of Missouri, Columbia
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Summary

I want first to point out an important misconstrual of what I have been arguing. For a quick but misleading summary of my thesis might be that knowledge is not valuable, whereas understanding is.

Such a summary is grossly misleading, for the position I have defended maintains a high value for knowledge. First, knowledge involves true belief, and true belief is valuable in virtue of the action-guiding character of belief and in virtue of the intrinsic value of finding the truth. Second, knowledge is valuable because of its relationship to subjective justification. I have not claimed, and do not claim here, that subjective justification is necessary for knowledge, but it is nonetheless true that one of the paths to knowledge is through the land of subjective justification. So, much knowledge is subjectively justified, even if not all of it is. Third, we have found also that displays of cognitive excellence or intellectual virtue are valuable as well. Once again, I have defended no position on the relationship between such displays and knowledge, but the same point is true here that is true of subjective justification. That is, even if displays of cognitive excellence are not necessary for knowledge, it is nonetheless true that much of our knowledge is explained in terms of such displays.

There are also other items that are related to knowledge that are valuable as well and lead to the conclusion that knowledge is of immense value.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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  • Conclusion
  • Jonathan L. Kvanvig, University of Missouri, Columbia
  • Book: The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding
  • Online publication: 14 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498909.010
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  • Conclusion
  • Jonathan L. Kvanvig, University of Missouri, Columbia
  • Book: The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding
  • Online publication: 14 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498909.010
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Jonathan L. Kvanvig, University of Missouri, Columbia
  • Book: The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding
  • Online publication: 14 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498909.010
Available formats
×