Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T10:38:48.159Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

TESTIMONY, PRAGMATICS, AND PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2015

Andrew Peet
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I outline what I call the ‘deniability problem’, explain why it is problematic, and identify the range of utterances to which it applies (using religious discourse as an example). The problem is as follows: To assign content to many utterances audiences must rely on their contextual knowledge. This generates a lot of scope for error. Thus, speakers are able to make assertions and deny responsibility for the proposition asserted, claiming that the audience made a mistake. I outline the problem (a limited version of which Fricker 2012 discusses), before explaining why it is problematic. Firstly it blocks testimonial knowledge according to assurance views. Secondly it prevents epistemic buck passing (the importance of which is emphasized by Goldberg 2006 and McMyler 2013). Finally, it removes a key disincentive to dishonesty. The recent literature on context sensitivity (particularly Cappelen and Lepore 2004) seems to entail that the problem applies to a very wide range of utterances. I consider a series of responses which fail to provide a solution, but which help us narrow down the scope of the problem.

Type
Articles
Information
Episteme , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 29 - 51
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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

Alston, W. 2005. ‘Religious Language.’ In Wainwright, J. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion, pp. 220–42. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bezuidenhout, A. 1997. ‘The Communication of De Re Thoughts.’ Nous, 31: 197–225.Google Scholar
Bezuidenhout, A. 2002. ‘Truth Conditional Pragmatics.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 16: 105–34.Google Scholar
Bloom, P. 2000. How Children Learn the Meaning of Words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books.Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. 1968. Aspects of Language. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.Google Scholar
Cappelen, H. and Lepore, E. 2004. Insensitive Semantics: A Defence of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Carston, R. 2002a. Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Carston, R. 2002b. ‘Metaphor, Ad Hoc Concepts, and Word Meaning: More Questions than Answers.’ UCL Working Papers in Linguistics, 14: 83–105.Google Scholar
Carston, R. and Wilson, D. 2007. ‘A Unitary Approach to Lexical Pragmatics: Relevance, Inference, and Ad Hoc Concepts.’ In Burton-Roberts, N. (ed), Pragmatics, pp. 230–59. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Clark, H. and Krych, A. 2001. ‘Speaking While Monitoring Addressees for Understanding.’ Journal of Memory and Language, 50: 62–81.Google Scholar
Fricker, E. 1994. ‘Against Gullibility.’ In Matilal, B. K. and Chakrabarti, A. (eds), Knowing From Words, pp. 125–63. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Fricker, E. 1995. “Telling and Trusting – Reductionism and Anti-Reductionism in the Epistemology of Testimony.’ Mind, 104: 393–411.Google Scholar
Fricker, E. 2006a. ‘Second Hand Knowledge.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 73: 592–618.Google Scholar
Fricker, E. 2006b. ‘Varieties of Anti-Reductionism About Testimony: A Response to Goldberg and Henderson.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 72: 618–28.Google Scholar
Fricker, E. 2012. ‘Stating and Insinuating.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society – Supplementary Volume, 86: 61–95.Google Scholar
Goldberg, S. 2006. ‘Reductionism and the Distinctiveness of Testimonial Knowledge.’ In Lackey, J. and Sosa, E. (eds), The Epistemology of Testimony, pp. 127–44. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldberg, S. 2011. ‘Putting the Norm of Assertion to Work: The case of Testimony.’ In Cappelen, H. and Brown, J. (eds), Assertion: New Philosophical Essays, pp. 175–97. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, S. 2013. ‘Anonymous Assertions.’ Episteme, 10: 135–51.Google Scholar
Hall, A. 2008. ‘Free Enrichment or Hidden Indexicals.’ Mind and Language, 23: 426–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heck, R. 2002. ‘Do Demonstratives have Senses?’ Philosopher's Imprint, 2: 1–33.Google Scholar
Hinchman, E. 2005. ‘Telling as Inviting to Trust.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 70: 562–87.Google Scholar
Keren, A. 2012. ‘On the Alleged Perversity of the Evidential View of Testimony.’ Analysis, 72: 700–7.Google Scholar
MacFarlane, J. 2005. ‘Making Sense of Relative Truth.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 105: 321–39.Google Scholar
MacFarlane, J. 2011. ‘What is Assertion?’ In Brown, H. and Cappelen, J. (eds), Assertion, pp. 79–96. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maitra, I. 2007. ‘How and Why to be a Moderate Contextualist.’ In Preyer, G. and Peter, G. (eds), Context Sensitivity and Semantic Minimalism: New Essays on Semantics and Pragmatics, pp. 112–33. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McMyler, B. 2013. ‘The Epistemic Significance of Address.’ Synthese, 190: 1059–78.Google Scholar
Moran, R. 2005a. ‘Problems of Sincerity.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 105: 341–61.Google Scholar
Moran, R. 2005b. ‘Getting Told and Being Believed.’ Philosopher's Imprint, 5: 1–29.Google Scholar
Perrini, E. 2009. ‘Does Contextualism Make Communication a Miracle?’ Manuscripto, 32: 231–47.Google Scholar
Perry, J. 2001. Reference and Reflexivity. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Recanati, F. 2004. Literal Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Recanati, F. 2010. Truth Conditional Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rescorla, M. 2009. ‘Assertion and its Constitutive Norms.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 79: 98–130.Google Scholar
Ross, A. 1986. ‘Why Do We Believe What We Are Told.’ Ratio, 28: 69–88.Google Scholar
Scott, M. 2010. ‘Religious Language.’ Philosophy Compass, 5: 505–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. 1986. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. 2000. ‘Context and Logical Form.’ Linguistics and Philosophy, 23: 391–434.Google Scholar
Travis, C. 1985. ‘On What is Strictly Speaking True.’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 15: 187–229.Google Scholar