Professor Jessica Moss

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Knowing what’s what: Aristotle on knowledge as discrimination

Aristotle sometimes seems to equate knowledge with krisis, distinguishing or discrimination – to hold not just that one must distinguish an object from other objects in order to know it, or to know facts about it, but that all knowing is discrimination. I argue that this may indeed be Aristotle’s view, with seeds in Plato. I also argue that it might be a promising view of knowledge, one that vindicates Goldman’s (1976) claim that: “A fundamental facet of animate life... is telling things apart... The concept of knowledge has its roots in this kind of cognitive activity.”