Angela Potochnik: A Non-Factive Epistemic Standard for Understanding and its Implications for Scientific Progress

Factivism or veritism about scientific understanding is the idea that truth is a requirement for legitimate understanding. One motivation for this idea is that there must be an objective standard for legitimate understanding in order for this to qualify as an epistemic success. I reject factivism about understanding: S can understand that A because B when B is not true. In this talk, I motivate an alternative standard for legitimate understanding that appeals to a broadened notion of epistemic acceptability rather than truth. I then argue that this revised standard for legitimate understanding better accommodates the nature of our present day scientific understanding as well as providing a natural interpretation of the idea that there is cumulative scientific progress.