Warrant and proper function

In this companion volume to Warrant : the Current Debate, Alvin Plantinga develops an original approach to the question of epistemic warrant; that is, what turns true belief into knowledge. He argues that what is crucial to warrant is the proper functioning of one's cognitive faculties in the right kind of cognitive environment. He begins by examining the notion of proper function and its colleagues: purpose, damage, design plan, malfunction, and the like. He then explores the general features of the cognitive design plan, explaining how his account of warrant applies in each of the main…