Among philosophers of science there seems to be a general consensus that understanding represents a species of knowledge, but virtually every major epistemologist who has thought seriously about understanding has come to deny this claim. Against this prevailing tide in epistemology, I argue that understanding is, in fact, a species of knowledge: just like knowledge, for example, understanding is not transparent and can be Gettiered. I then consider how the psychological act of ''grasping'' that seems to be characteristic of understanding differs from the sort of psychological act that often characterizes knowledge.
Over the last several years a number of leading philosophers -including Catherine Elgin, Linda Zagzebski, Jonathan Kvanvig, and Duncan Pritchard -have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the contemporary focus on knowledge in epistemology and have attempted to ''recover'' the notion of understanding. According to some of these philosophers, in fact, understanding deserves not just to be recovered, but to supplant knowledge as the focus of epistemological inquiry. This entry considers some of the main reasons why philosophers have taken understanding to be more valuable than knowledge, focusing on claims that it is more transparent, that it better reflects or mirrors the world, and that it is a greater intellectual achievement.
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