Abstract

Critics of naturalistic epistemology often argue that any account of knowledge that is descriptive thereby loses its ability to account for epistemic normativity. This chapter presents an account of epistemic normativity that flows from the descriptive account of knowledge as a natural kind presented in Ch. 2. Epistemic norms are argued to be hypothetical imperatives, contingent on having desires of any sort at all. Epistemic norms are thus universal, even if only hypothetical.