Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 3 (4):273-282 (2014)
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Abstract |
The Knowledge Norm of Assertion claims that it is proper to assert that p only if one knows that p. Though supported by a wide range of evidence, it appears to generate incorrect verdicts when applied to utterances of “I don't know.” Instead of being an objection to KNA, I argue that this linguistic data shows that “I don't know” does not standardly function as a literal assertion about one's epistemic status; rather, it is an indirect speech act that has the primary illocutionary force of opting out of the speaker's conversational responsibilities. This explanation both reveals that the opt-out is an under-appreciated type of illocutionary act with a wide range of applications, and shows that the initial data in fact supports KNA over its rivals
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Keywords | opt‐out “I don't know” Pyrrhonian skepticism indirect speech acts knowledge norm of assertion |
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DOI | 10.1002/tht3.142 |
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References found in this work BETA
Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language.John R. Searle - 1969 - Cambridge University Press.
The Case for Contextualism: Knowledge, Skepticism, and Context, Vol. 1.Keith DeRose - 2009 - Oxford University Press.
Assertion, Knowledge, and Rational Credibility.Igor Douven - 2006 - Philosophical Review 115 (4):449-485.
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