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Single Idea 19545

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / A. Justification Problems / 2. Justification Challenges / c. Knowledge closure ]

Full Idea

One doesn't have to regret everything one knows to be implied by what one regrets. Tom regrets drinking three martinis, but doesn't regret what he knows to be implied by this - that he drank 'something', or that the past is real.

Gist of Idea

We needn't regret the implications of our regrets; regretting drinking too much implies the past is real

Source

Fred Dretske (The Case against Closure (and reply) [2005], p.28)

Book Ref

'Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (2nd ed)', ed/tr. Steup/Turri/Sosa [Wiley Blackwell 2014], p.28


A Reaction

A nice case of analogy! He's right about regret. Perceptual and inferential knowledge have different grounds. To deny inferential knowledge seems to be a denial that modus ponens can be a justification. But MP gives truth, not knowledge.

Related Idea

Idea 16307 Don't trust analogies; they are no more than a guideline [Halbach]


The 18 ideas from Fred Dretske

Closure says if you know P, and also know P implies Q, then you must know Q [Dretske]
We needn't regret the implications of our regrets; regretting drinking too much implies the past is real [Dretske]
Reasons for believing P may not transmit to its implication, Q [Dretske]
Knowing by visual perception is not the same as knowing by implication [Dretske]
The only way to preserve our homely truths is to abandon closure [Dretske]
P may imply Q, but evidence for P doesn't imply evidence for Q, so closure fails [Dretske]
We know past events by memory, but we don't know the past is real (an implication) by memory [Dretske]
You have knowledge if you can rule out all the relevant alternatives to what you believe [Dretske, by DeRose]
A mouse hearing a piano played does not believe it, because it lacks concepts and understanding [Dretske]
Representations are in the head, but their content is not, as stories don't exist in their books [Dretske]
Introspection does not involve looking inwards [Dretske]
In a representational theory of mind, introspection is displaced perception [Dretske]
A representational theory of the mind is an externalist theory of the mind [Dretske]
Belief is the power of metarepresentation [Dretske]
Introspection is the same as the experience one is introspecting [Dretske]
Qualia are just the properties objects are represented as having [Dretske]
Some activities are performed better without consciousness of them [Dretske]
All mental facts are representation, which consists of informational functions [Dretske]