Abstract: In a footnote of Knowledge and its Limits Williamson argues that the genealogy of the concept of knowledge that Craig develops in Knowledge and the State of Nature is inconsistent with the knowledge-first view. In this paper I develop Williamson's argument and discuss the relationship between knowledge-first epistemology and genealogy more generally. I have two main objectives. The first is to show that Williamson's footnote contains the seeds of a powerful knowledge-first objection to the possibility of understanding knowledge genealogically. The second is to suggest an alternative answer to the question, at the heart of genealogical accounts, of why human beings possess the concept of knowledge. To do this, I draw on a claim Matt Soteriou has made about the role of knowledge in conscious thinking.

Contact: Lucy Campbell