Belief, Personal, and Propositional Knowledge

Villoro offers a systematic analysis of the fundamental epistemic concepts: belief, personal knowledge, propositional knowledge, and certainty. He analyses their relationships, on the one hand, with reasons that justify the truth of our beliefs, and on the other with motivations (desires, wants, interests) that can distort them. Some of the questions the author addresses are: when can we say that our knowledge is grounded on objective reasons? How are those reasons affected by our desires and interests? Knowledge and beliefs are analyzed as they are held by concrete men and women, determined by their personal motivations, and conditioned by social circumstances. Thus conceived, they cannot be understood without their relationships to will and to human practices. The book concludes with the study of the relationships of beliefs and knowledge with precepts that regulate practical life in society. Rational conditions of belief thus appear as conditions for the realization of a free and rational life.