Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:50:29.543Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Context-Insensitivity of ‘Knowing More’ and ‘Knowing Better’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Igor Douven
Igor Douven*
Affiliation:
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper argues that if epistemological contextualism is correct, then not only have knowledge-ascribing sentences context-sensitive truth conditions, certain comparative and superlative constructions involving ‘know’ have context-sensitive truth conditions as well. But not only is there no evidence for the truth of the latter consequence, the evidence seems to indicate that it is false.

The position I aim to criticize has been defended by, most notably, Stewart Cohen, Keith DeRose, and David Lewis. While the contextualist theories offered by these authors differ in their details, the problem to be presented seems to arise irrespective of these details. And though in most of the illustrations below I rely on Lewis's account, I could have made essentially the same points in terms of any of the other accounts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 313 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cohen, S. 1987. ‘Knowledge, Context, and Social Standards.’ Synthese 73 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. 1988. ‘How to be a Fallibilist’ Philosophical Perspectives 2 91–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. 1999. ‘Contextualism, Skepticism, and the Structure of Reasons.’ Philosophical Perspectives 13 57–89.Google Scholar
DeRose, K. 1992. ‘Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52 913–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeRose, K. 1995. ‘Solving the Sceptical Puzzle.’ Philosophical Review 104 1–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeRose, K. 1999a. ‘Contextualism: An Explanation and Defense,’ in The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology, Greco, J. and Sosa, E. eds. Oxford: Blackwell. 187–205.Google Scholar
DeRose, K. 1999b. ‘Introduction: Responding to Skepticism,’ in Skepticism: A Contemporary Reader, DeRose, K. and Warfield, T. eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1–24.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. 1999. ‘Contextualism and Skepticism.’ Philosophical Perspectives 13 91–114.Google Scholar
Hetherington, S. 2001. Good Knowledge, Bad Knowledge. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 1979. ‘Scorekeeping in a Language Game.’ Journal of Philosophical Logic 8 339–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 1996. ‘Elusive Knowledge.’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74. Reprinted in K. DeRose and T. Warfield, eds. Skepticism: A Contemporary Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999. 220-39. (The page references are to the reprint.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakley, I.T. 2001. ‘A Skeptic's Reply to Lewisian Contextualism.’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy 31 309–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rysiew, P. 2001. The Context-Sensitivity of Knowledge Attributions.’ Noûs 35 477–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiffer, S. 1996. ‘Contextualist Solutions to Skepticism.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 96 317–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, J. 2000. ‘Context and Logical Form.’ Linguistics and Philosophy 23 391–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unger, P. 1971. ‘A Defense of Skepticism.’ Philosophical Review 80 198–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar