Abstract
A critique of conversational epistemic contextualism focusing initially on why pragmatic encroachment for knowledge is to be avoided. The data for pragmatic encroachment by way of greater costs of error and the complementary means to raise standards of introducing counter-possibilities are argued to be accountable for by prudence, fallibility and pragmatics. This theme is sharpened by a contrast in recommendations: holding a number of factors constant, when allegedly higher standards for knowing hold, invariantists still recommend assertion (action), while contextualists do not. Given the knowledge norm of assertion, if one recommendation is preferable to the other, the result favors the preferred recommendation’s account of knowledge. In the final section, I offer a unification of these criticisms centering on the contextualist use of ‘epistemic position’. Their use imposes on threshold notions of justification, warrant, or knowledge tests that are suitable only to unlimited comparative or scalar notions like confidence or certainty and places them at one with an important strand of sceptical reasoning.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler J. (2002) Belief’s own ethics. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Adler J. (2006) Withdrawal and contextualism. Analysis 66: 280–285
Alston W. (1980) Level confusions in epistemology. Midwest Studies in Philosophy: Studies in Epistemology V: 135–150
Austin J. L. (1970) Other minds. In: Urmson J. O., Warnock G. J. (eds) In his philosophical papers 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 76–116
Bach K. (2005) The Emperor’s new ‘knows’. In: Preyer G., Peter G. (eds) Contextualism in philosophy: Knowledge, meaning, and truth. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp 51–89
Blome-Tillmann M. (2008) The indexicality of ‘knowledge’. Philosophical Studies 138: 29–53
Brandom R. (1994) Making it explicit. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Bratman M. (1992) Practical reasoning and acceptance in a context. Mind 101: 1–14
Brown J. (2008) Subject-sensitive invariantism and the knowledge norm for practical reasoning. Nous 42: 167–189
Burge T. (1993) Content preservation. The Philosophical Review 102: 457–488
Clarke T. (1972) The legacy of scepticism. Journal of Philosophy 69: 754–769
Cohen L. J. (1977) The probable and the provable. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Cohen S. (1988) How to be a falllibilist. Philosophical Perspectives 2: 581–605
Cohen S. (1999) Contextualism, scepticism, and the structure of reasons. Philosophical Perspectives 33: 57–89
Comesaña J. (2009) What lottery problem for reliabilism?. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 90: 1–20
DeRose K. (1992) Contextualism and knowledge attributions. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52: 913–929
DeRose K. (1995) Solving the sceptical problem. The Philosophical Review 104: 1–52
DeRose K. (2002) Assertion, knowledge, and context. The Philosophical Review 111: 167–203
DeRose K. (2005) The ordinary language basis for contextualism and the new invariantism. Philosophical Quarterly 55: 172–198
DeRose K. (2006) Bamboozled by our own words: Semantic blindness and some arguments against contextualism. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73: 316–338
DeRose, K. (2009). The case for contextualism. Oxford: Oxford University Press (A number of the previous articles are extended chapters in this book).
Descartes, R. (1996). Meditations on first philosophy (J. Cottingham, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dougherty T., Rysiew P. (2009) Fallibilism, epistemic possibility, and concessive knowledge attributions. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 78: 123–132
Douven I. (2006) Assertion, knowledge, and rational credibility. Philosophical Review 115: 449–485
Douven I. (2007) A pragmatic dissolution of Harman’s paradox. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 74: 326–345
Douven I. (2008) Knowledge and practical reasons. Dialectica 62: 101–118
Dretske F. (1970) Epistemic operators. Journal of Philosophy 67: 1007–1023
Dretske F. (1981) Knowledge and the flow of information. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Dretske F. (2005) The case against closure. In: Steup M., Sosa E. (eds) Contemporary debates in epistemology. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 13–26
Elgin C. (2004) True enough. Philosophical Issues: Epistemology 14: 113–131
Falmagne R., Gonsalves J., Bennett-Lau S. (1994) Children’s linguistic intuitions about factive presuppositions. Cognitive Development 9: 1–22
Fantl J., McGrath M. (2002) Evidence, pragmatics, and justification. The Philosophical Review 111: 67–94
Fantl J., McGrath M. (2007) Knowledge and the purely epistemic: In favor of pragmatic encroachment. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 75: 558–589
Fantl J., McGrath M. (2009) Advice for fallibilists: Put knowledge to work. Philosophical Studies 142: 55–66
Grice, H. P. (1989). Logic and conversation: Further notes on logic and conversation. In his Studies in the way of words (pp. 22–57). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hawthorne J. (2004) Knowledge and lotteries. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Hawthorne J., Stanley J. (2008) Knowledge and action. Journal of Philosophy 105: 571–590
Hetherington S. (2001) Good knowledge, bad knowledge. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Lackey J. (2003) Norms of assertion. Nous 41: 594–626
Laudan L. (1990) Demystifying underdetermination. In: Savage C. W. (ed) Scientific theories Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp 267–297
Leite A. (2007) How to link knowledge and assertion without going contextualist: A reply to derose’s ‘assertion, knowledge, and context’. Philosophical Studies 134: 111–129
Levi I. (1980) The enterprise of knowledge. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Lewis, D. (1983). Scorekeeping in a language-game. In his Philosophical papers (Vol. I, pp. 233–249). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, D. (1999). Elusive knowledge. In his Papers in metaphysics and epistemology (pp. 418–445). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Littlejohn C. (2009) Must we act only on what we know?. Journal of Philosophy 106: 463–473
MacFarlane J. (2009) Nonindexical contextualism. Synthese 166: 231–250
Mellor H. (1971) The matter of chance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Montminy, M. (2008). Can contextualists maintain neutrality? Philosophers, 8, 1–13. http://www.philosophersimprint.org/00800.
Reed B. (2010) A defense of stable invariantism. Nous 44: 224–244
Rysiew P. (2001) The context-sensitivity of knowledge attributions. Nous 35: 477–514
Rysiew, P. (2007). Epistemic contextualism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2007/entries/contextualism-epistemology/.
Schiffer S. (1996) Contextualist solutions to scepticism. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 96: 317–333
Sosa E. (2000) Scepticism and contextualism. Philosophical Issues: Scepticism 10: 1–18
Sosa E. (2005) Dreams and philosophy. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 79: 7–18
Stanley J. (2005) Knowledge and practical interests. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Stroud B. (1984) The significance of philosophical scepticism. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Turri J. (2010) Epistemic invariantism and speech act contextualism. Philosophical Review 119: 77–95
Unger P. (1975) Ignorance. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Vogel J. (1990) Are there counterexamples to closure?. In: Roth M. D., Ross G. (eds) Doubting. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 13–27
Weatherson B. (2005) Can we do without pragmatic encroachment?. Philosophical Perspectives 19: 417–443
Wedgwood, R. (2008). Contextualism about justified belief. Philosophers, 8, 1–20 www.philosophersimprint.org/008009/
Weiner M. (2005) Must we know what we say?. Philosophical Review 114: 227–251
Weiner, M. (2007). Norms Of assertion. Philosophy Compass, 2.
Williams B. A. O. (1978) Descartes: The project of oure inquiry. Penguin, New York
Williams M. (1996) Unnatural doubts. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Williamson T. (2000) Knowledge and its limits. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Williamson T. (2005) Contextualism, subject-sensitive invariantism, and knowledge of knowledge. The Philosophical Quarterly 55: 213–235
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Adler, J.E. Contextualism and fallibility: pragmatic encroachment, possibility, and strength of epistemic position. Synthese 188, 247–272 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-011-9926-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-011-9926-4