ABSTRACT
It seems to be one of the most natural things to say about human knowledge that it aims at being knowledge of the world. The fact that knowledge is certainly not only of the external world, in some as yet under-theorized sense, instantly invites the question of whether there is some domain of objects or facts that corresponds to knowledge in general or knowledge as such. Williams might rejoin that this assumption of cognitive difference nevertheless has a Cartesian ring to it. If it is mereological knowledge, this assumes that there is substantial knowledge of the world-whole, after all, and her position has not been weakened. For what follows, it is sufficient to assume that no currently available epistemological account can draw on shared metaphysical knowledge concerning the overall architecture of reality, which means that people's account of knowledge simply cannot rely on universally recognized metaphysical knowledge.
