ABSTRACT
Epistemology can be viewed as an inquiry into the conditions under which knowledge of a mind-independent reality can be secured. Attributing to a philosopher such as Aristotle the view that factual knowledge cannot be secured without having an account of the facts one comes to know might thus be rather uncharitable. As suggested by Zagzebski, such philosophers tend to conceive of the main epistemological question as pertaining to a subject's ability to account for reality without thereby denying that there is a sense in which a subject can secure a cognitive access to reality without being in a position to account for it. Although gaining an understanding of reality may involve more than knowing certain propositions to be true, as just noted, it is prima facie plausible that securing factual knowledge is necessary to gain such an understanding.
