Combining Texts

Ideas for 'The Case for Closure', 'The Rediscovery of the Mind' and 'Db (chronology)'

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3 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / e. Belief holism
Beliefs are part of a network, and also exist against a background [Searle]
     Full Idea: We need to postulate a network of beliefs, and also a background of capacities that are not themselves part of the network.
     From: John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 8.I)
Beliefs only make sense as part of a network of other beliefs [Searle]
     Full Idea: To have one belief or desire, I have to have a whole network of other beliefs and desires.
     From: John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 8.I)
11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 2. Common Sense Certainty
Commitment to 'I have a hand' only makes sense in a context where it has been doubted [Hawthorne]
     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.
     From: John Hawthorne (The Case for Closure [2005], 2)
     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'.