UC Irvine

It is commonplace in epistemology to hear people say that there cannot be lucky knowledge (call this the anti-luck intuition). This claim requires some unpacking, however, since epistemologists have something quite specific in mind when they put forward this thesis. In particular, they are not denying that it might well be a matter of luck that an agent has knowledge. Imagine an agent who a few moments ago narrowly avoided being killed by a sniper (because, say, she happened to glance downwards at a very fortuitous moment). If so, then she is lucky to be alive and thus lucky to be in a position to know anything. Accordingly, if that fortuitous downward glance happened to reveal to her that she is wearing non-matching socks, and she comes to know this proposition on this basis, then it will be a matter of luck that she has this knowledge.