Knowledge, Cognitive Achievement, and Environmental Luck

Abstract

Abstract This article defends the view that knowledge is type‐identical to cognitive achievement . I argue, pace D uncan P ritchard, that not only knowledge, but also cognitive achievement is incompatible with environmental luck. I show that the performance of cognitive abilities in environmental luck cases does not distinguish them from non‐abilities per se . For this reason, although the cognitive abilities of the subject are exercised in environmental luck cases, they are not manifested in any relevant sense. I conclude by showing that this explanation is not ad hoc as it can be generalized to apply to causal features besides cognitive abilities.