Abstract
Contextualism is supposed to explain why the following argument for skepticism seems plausible: (1) I don’t know that I am not a bodiless brain-in-a-vat (BIV); (2) If I know I have hands, then I know I am not a bodiless BIV; (3) Therefore, I do not know I have hands. Keith DeRose claims that (1) and (2) are “initially plausible.” I claim that (1) is initially plausible only because of an implicit argument that stands behind it; it is not intuitively plausible. The argument DeRose offers is based on the requirement of sensitivity, that is, on the idea that if you know something then you would not believe it if it were false. I criticize the sensitivity requirement thereby undercutting its support for (1) and the skeptical data that contextualism is meant to explain. While skepticism is not a plausible ground for contextualism, I argue that certain pragmatic considerations are. It’s plausible to think that to know something more evidence is required when more is at stake. The best way to handle skepticism is to criticize the arguments for it. We should not adopt contextualism as a means of accommodating skepticism even if there are other pragmatic reasons for being a contextualist about knowledge.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cohen, S. 2001: “Contextualism Defended: Comments on Richard Feldman’s Skeptical Problems, Contextualist Solutions,” Philosophical Studies 103, 87–98.
DeRose, K. 1992: “Contextualism and Knowledge Attribution,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52, 913–29.
DeRose, K. 1995: “Solving the Skeptical Problem,” The Philosophical Review, v. 104, 1–52. Reprinted in part in Sosa, K. & Kim, J. (eds.) (2000), Epistemology: An Anthology, Blackwell Publishers, Ltd., Oxford and Malden, MA, 482–502. All references will be to the reprint.
DeRose, K. 2002: “Assertion, Knowledge, and Context,” The Philosophical Review 111, 167–101.
Engel, M. 2004a: “Lotteries, Knowledge, and Inconsistent Belief,” unpublished manuscript, 1–27.
Engel, M. 2004b: “What’s Wrong With Contextualism, and a Noncontextualist Resolution of the Skeptical Paradox,” Erkenntnis, forthcoming.
Feldman, R. 1999: “Contextualism and Skepticism,” Philosophical Perspectives 13, 91–114.
Feldman, R. 2001: “Skeptical Problems, Contextualist Solutions,” Philosophical Studies 103, 61–85.
Plantinga, A. 1988: “Positive Epistemic Status and Proper Function,” Philosophical Perspectives, Epistemology 2, 1–50.
Pritchard, D. 2002: “Recent Work on Radical Skepticism,” American Philosophical Quarterly 39, 215–57.
Russell, B. 2001: “Epistemic and Moral Duty,” in M. Steup (ed.), Knowledge, Truth, and Duty: Essays on Epistemic Justification, Responsibility, and Virtue, Oxford U. P., Oxford, 34–48.
Russell, B. 2004: “How to Be An Anti-Sceptic and a Noncontextualist,” Erkenntnis, forthcoming.
Stanley, J. 2004: “Context, Interest-Relativity, and Knowledge,” delivered to the Philosophy Department at Wayne State University, March, 2004.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Russell, B. Contextualism on a pragmatic, not a skeptical, footing. Acta Anal 20, 26–37 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-005-1020-4
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-005-1020-4