How we know what we think

Abstract

Assuming that knowledge of our own beliefs is usually epistemically and psychologically immediate a natural question is: how is such immediate self-knowledge possible? I examine and criticize Richard Moran's response to this question and develop a different account. My alternative draws on the idea that immediate self-knowledge results from the operation of a sub-personal monitoring mechanism. I express doubts about the extent to which knowledge of our own beliefs is immediate, and suggest that some versions of the immediacy intuition rest on a confusion between belief and judgement.