Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T12:13:32.100Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“I Do What Happens”: The Productive Character of Practical Knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

Rory O’Connell Open the ORCID record for Rory O’Connell [Opens in a new window]
Rory O’Connell*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Elizabeth Anscombe introduced the notion of “practical knowledge” into contemporary philosophy. Philosophers of action have criticized Anscombe’s negative characterization of such knowledge as “non-observational,” but have recently come to pay more attention to her positive characterization of practical knowledge as “the cause of what it understands.” I argue that two recent Anscombean accounts of practical knowledge, “Formalism” and “Normativism,” each fail to explain the productive character of practical knowledge in a way that secures its status as non-observational. I argue that to do this, we must appreciate the role of know-how or skill in practical knowledge.

Keywords

Philosophy of actionpractical knowledgepractical reasoningElizabeth Anscombeknow-howskill
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 50 , Issue 5 , July 2020 , pp. 670 - 686
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

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

Anscombe, G. E. M. 2000. Intention. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M. 2005. “Practical Inference.” In Human Life, Action and Ethics: Essays by G. E. M. Anscombe, edited by Geach, Mary and Gormally, Luke, 109–47. Reprinted by Charlottesville, VA: Imprint Academic. First published 1989.Google Scholar
Burge, T. 1993. “Content Preservation.” Philosophical Review 102 (4): 457–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. 2001. “Actions, Reasons and Causes.” In Essays on Actions and Events, edited by Davidson, D., 3–20. Reprinted by Oxford: Oxford University Press. First printed in 1963 in The Journal of Philosophy 60 (23): 685–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnellan, K. 1963. “Knowing What I Am Doing.” Journal of Philosophy 60: 401–09.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falvey, K. 2000. “Knowledge in Intention.” Philosophical Studies 99: 21–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, A. 2016a. “The Province of Human Agency,” Noûs 52 (3): 1–24Google Scholar
Ford, A. 2016b. “On What Is in Front of One’s Nose,” Philosophical Topics 44 (1): 141–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frost, K. 2019. “A Metaphysics for Practical Knowledge,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 49 (3): 314–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, S. 2003. “Bodily Self-Awareness and Object Perception.” Theoria et Historia Scientiarum 7 (1): 53–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haase, M. 2018. “Knowing What I Have Done.” Manuscrito 41 (4): 195–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hursthouse, R. 2000. “Intention.” Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 46: 83–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, E. 2012. Rational Causation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, E. 2018. “Practical Knowledge as Knowledge of a Normative Judgment.” Manuscrito 41 (4): 319–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, J. 2011. “Anscombe on Bodily Self-Knowledge.” In Essays on Anscombe’s Intention, edited by Ford, A., Hornsby, J., and Stoutland, F.. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Moran, R. 2001. Authority and Estrangement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Moran, R. 2004. “Anscombe on ‘Practical Knowledge.’” Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 55: 43–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newstead, A. 2006. “Knowledge by Intention? On the Possibility of Agent’s Knowledge.” In Aspects of Knowing, edited by Hetherington, S., 183–201. Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044979-1/50013-8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, S. 2011. “Deviant Formal Causation.” Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 5 (3): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, H. 2004. “Knowledge of Action without Observation.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 104 (3): 203–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rödl, S. 2007. Self-Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schwenkler, J. 2015. “‘Understanding ‘Practical Knowledge.’” Philosopher’s Imprint 15: 15.Google Scholar
Schwenkler, J. 2019. Anscombe’s Intention: A Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Setiya, K. 2008. “Practical Knowledge.” Ethics 118: 388–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Setiya, K. 2016. “Anscombe on Practical Knowledge.” In Practical Knowledge: Selected Essays, edited by Setiya, K., 156–68. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Small, W. 2012. “Practical Knowledge and the Structure of Action.” In Rethinking Epistemology Vol. 2, edited by Abel, G. and Conant, J., 133–227. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Small, W. 2019. “Basic Action and Practical Knowledge.” In Philosopher’s Imprint, 19 (19): 1–22.Google Scholar
Stroud, B. 2013. “Doing Something Intentionally and Knowing You Are Doing It.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 43 (1): 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, M. 2008. Life and Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar