“Can We Be Unaware of What We Know?: Aristotle on Awareness of Non-Occurrent Epistēmē”

I argue that Aristotle affirms the following entailment about our awareness of scientific knowledge (epistēmē): If I know, then I think that I know. First, I establish Aristotle’s commitment to this entailment by examining two passages from Posterior Analytics that rely on this claim. Second, I offer three clarifications of the scope and limitations of this entailment. Third, I consider three objections that challenge Aristotle’s consistent adherence to this claim based on his explicit acknowledgement of the possibility of akratic inattention to what we know and of forgetting knowledge. I consider and reject a facile solution to this tension and then propose a different solution that preserves Aristotle’s commitment to our awareness of non-occurrent epistemic states.