Knowledge and Assertion

Leading proponents of a wide variety of contemporary accounts of knowledge assume that knowledge is the norm of assertion. The assumption is central to the debate between contextualists and invariantists about the correct account of knowledge. DeRose (2002) argues that the knowledge norm for assertion favours contextualism, Hawthorne (2004) uses the knowledge norm to support subject-sensitive invariantism, whereas Williamson (2005) combines the knowledge norm and an invariantist account of knowledge. To assess these arguments, we need to clarify the idea that knowledge is the norm of assertion. While much of the literature has focussed on the idea that knowledge is necessary for warranted assertion, here I focus on a different idea, that knowledge is sufficient for warranted assertion.