Unsafe Knowledge

Ernest Sosa has argued that if someone knows that p, then his belief that p is “safe,” and Timothy Williamson has agreed. In this paper I argue that safety, as defined by Sosa, is not a necessary condition on knowledge—that we can have unsafe knowledge. In the next section I present Sosa’s definition of safety, and in section III I present a counterexample to it as a necessary condition on knowledge. In that same section I also argue that Sosa’s most recent refinements to the notion of safety don’t help him to avoid the counterexample. In section IV I consider three replies on behalf of the defender of safety, and find them all wanting. Finally, in section V I offer a tentative diagnosis of my counterexample.