Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:30:21.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Knowledge and Certainties in the Epistemic State of Nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Martin Kusch
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper seeks to defend, develop, and revise Edward Craig's “genealogy of knowledge”. The paper first develops the suggestion that Craig's project is naturally thought of as an important instance of “social cognitive ecology”. It then introduces the genealogy of knowledge and some of its main problems and weaknesses, suggesting that these are best taken as challenges for further work rather than as refutations. The central sections of the paper conduct a critical dialogue between Craig's theory and Wittgenstein's claim–familiar from On Certainty–that common-sense certainties cannot be known. It turns out that Craig's distinction between different stages in the development of our concept of knowledge can illuminate and make plausible Wittgenstein's claim. But it can do so only if Craig's traditional commitment to a central “core” in our concept of knowledge is replaced with the idea of knowledge as a family-resemblance concept.

Type
Research Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 6 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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

REFERENCES

Barnes, B. 2000. Understanding Agency: Social Theory and Responsible Action. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, B., Bloor, D., and Henry, J.. 1996. Scientific Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis. London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Bloor, D. 1997. Wittgenstein, Rules and Institutions. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Craig, E. 1990. Knowledge and the State of Nature: An Essay in Conceptual Synthesis. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Craig, E. 2007. “Genealogies and the State of Nature.” In Thomas, A. (ed.), Bernard Williams, pp. 181–200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croft, W. 2000. Explaining Language Change. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Daston, R. and Galison, P.. 2007. Objectivity. New York: Zone Books.Google Scholar
Fricker, M. 2007. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greco, J. 2003. “Knowledge as Credit for True Belief.” In DePaul, M. and Zagzebski, L. (eds.), Intellectual Virtue: Perspectives from Ethics and Epistemology, pp. 111–34. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, H. P. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hawthorne, J. 2003. Knowledge and Lotteries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazlett, A. 2010. “The Myth of Factive Verbs.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 80(3): 497–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holton, R. 1997. “Some Telling Examples: A Reply to Tsohatzidis.” Journal of Pragmatics 28: 625–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelp, C. 2011. “What is the Point of ‘Knowledge’ Anyway?” Episteme 8(1): 53–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusch, M. 2002. Knowledge by Agreement: The Programme of Communitarian Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusch, M. 2009. “Testimony and the Value of Knowledge.” In Haddock, A., Millar, A., and Pritchard, D. (eds.), Epistemic Value, pp. 60–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusch, M. 2011. “Genealogy, Metrology, Historical Epistemology.” Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. L. 2003. The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvanvig, J. L. 2009. “Responses to Critics.” In Haddock, A., Millar, A., and Pritchard, D. (eds.), Epistemic Value, pp. 339–51. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, G. E. 1925/1959. “A Defence of Common Sense.” In Philosophical Papers, pp. 32–59. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Moore, G. E. 1939/1959. “Proof of an External World.” In Philosophical Papers, pp. 127–50. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Schelling, T. 1960. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. 2005. Knowledge and Practical Interests. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Travis, C. 1991. “Annals of Analysis.” Critical Notice of Grice, H. P., Studies in the Way of Words. Mind 100: 237–64.Google Scholar
Travis, C. 1997. “Pragmatics.” In Hale, B. and Wright, C. (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Language, pp. 87–107. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Travis, C. 2006. Thought's Footing: A Theme in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vendler, Z. 1979. “Telling the Facts.” In French, P. A., Uehling, T. E., and Wettstein, H. K. (eds.), Contemporary Perspectives in the Philosophy of Language, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, vol. 2, pp. 220–32. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Welbourne, M. 1993. The Community of Knowledge. Aldershot: Gregg Revivals.Google Scholar
Williams, B. 2002. Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2000. Knowledge and Its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Winch, P. 1958. The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. 1969. On Certainty. Anscombe, G. E. M. and von Wright, G. H. (eds.). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. 1978. Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. 2000, Nachlass: The Bergen Electronic Edition. CD-ROM. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar