Knowledge and analysis in Ernst Sosa’s “Propositional knowledge”

Abstract

Ernest Sosa’s work has several versions of analysis of knowledge, having as a starting point Gettier’s problem. From the assumption that a set of Sosa’s works amount to a body of works with its own particular method and démarche, in addition to configuring a singular position in the contemporary epistemological scene, we intend to present the evolution of versions of previous analysis to his epistemology of virtues, with special attention to the text “Propositional Knowledge”, in 1969. Thus, considering the specificity and intrinsic relation between the notions of ‘analysis’ and ‘knowledge’ in the movement of Sosa’s work, it will be shown the formal conditions and argumentative difficulties that require the introduction of intellectual virtues in the definition of knowledge. We hope as well to anticipate the challenges that make the epistemology of virtues one of the most productive programs of investigation of contemporary epistemology.