We report experimental results showing that participants are more likely to attribute knowledge in familiar Gettier cases when the would-be knowers are performing actions that are negative in some way (e.g. harmful, blameworthy, norm-violating) than when they are performing positive or neutral actions. Our experiments bring together important elements from the Gettier case literature in epistemology and the Knobe effect literature in experimental philosophy and reveal new insights into folk patterns of knowledge attribution.

It has been many years since the Classical notion of an objective, determinate account of the human good, applicable to all people, has played the central role in most moral theories. One contribution to this decline has been the Kantian belief that one cannot say what happiness is. Kant thinks that happiness is a purely empirical concept and is therefore dependent on contingent, unpredictable objects and states of affairs.