Single Idea 19553

[catalogued under 11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 2. Common Sense Certainty]

Full Idea

If I utter 'I know I have a hand' then I can only be reckoned a cooperative conversant by my interlocutors on the assumption that there was a real question as to whether I have a hand.

Gist of Idea

Commitment to 'I have a hand' only makes sense in a context where it has been doubted

Source

John Hawthorne (The Case for Closure [2005], 2)

Book Reference

'Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (2nd ed)', ed/tr. Steup/Turri/Sosa [Wiley Blackwell 2014], p.44


A Reaction

This seems to point to the contextualist approach to global scepticism, which concerns whether we are setting the bar high or low for 'knowledge'.