ABSTRACT
A number of philosophers have defended the claim that knowledge is a kind of achievement. The central idea is that, in cases of knowledge, the knower's getting things right can be attributed to her own doing. This chapter considers some objections to the achievement view, including the objection that it understands knowledge in overly individualistic terms. It also considers a proposal for revising the achievement view in a way that addresses this last objection. The chapter proposes that some cases of knowledge are best understood as a kind of joint achievement, resulting from the cooperative joint agency of multiple persons. The idea that knowledge is a kind of achievement has considerable explanatory power regarding the nature, value and scope of knowledge. Regarding the nature of knowledge, the achievement account yields the following diagnosis of standard Gettier cases.
