... aspecific exercise of the state -of- nature and genealogical methods: his ownapplication of them, which forms the rest of the book, to the twin virtues of truthfulness, sincerity, and accuracy. With ... retrospective look at my own state -of- natureaccount of the origins of the everyday concept of knowledge in Knowledge and the State of Nature,tosee how it looks in the light of the precedingdiscussion. ... find). They can remind us of the contingency of ourinstitutions and standards, communicating a sense of how easily they mighthave been different, and of how different they might have been. Or theycan...