Abstract by Jeremy Fantl:
I defend traditional epistemology against the charge that it can’t provide intellectual or practical guidance. What you should do and how you should inquire often depend on what you know. Therefore, it can be helpful to figure out what you know. But there is reason to think that traditional epistemology can improve knowledge-recognition in the same way recognition skills are enhanced in other contexts. Generally, recognition is improved by isolating local features plausibly relevant to the presence or absence of the item recognized. So, absent some argument to the contrary, there is reason to think that traditional epistemology, which arguably isolates local features plausibly relevant to the presence or absence of knowledge, should improve knowledge-recognition.