Skepticism, Contextualism, and Discrimination

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 69 (1):138-155 (2004)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The skeptic says that “knowledge” is an absolute term, whereas the contextualist says that “knowledge” is a relationally absolute term. Which is the better hypothesis about “knowledge”? And what implications do these hypotheses about “knowledge” have for knowledge? I argue that the skeptic has the better hypothesis about “knowledge”, but that both hypotheses about “knowledge” have deeply anti-skeptical implications for knowledge, since both presuppose our capacity for epistemically salient discrimination.

Other Versions

reprint Schaffer, Jonathan (2007) "Skepticism, Contextualism, and Discrimination". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 69(1):138-155

Similar books and articles

Précis of The Appearance of Ignorance: Knowledge, Skepticism, and Context, Vol. 2.Keith DeRose - 2019 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 9 (3):321-323.
Contextualism and Context Voluntarism.David Coss - 2018 - Logos and Episteme 9 (2):125-136.
In Conversation with the Skeptic: Contextualism and the Raising of Standards.Daniele Sgaravatti - 2013 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 3 (2):97-118.
Contextualism and the problem of the external world.Ram Neta - 2003 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66 (1):1–31.
Quantifiers, Knowledge, and Counterfactuals.Jonathan Ichikawa - 2010 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 82 (2):287 - 313.
Skepticism as a theory of knowledge.Jim Stone - 2000 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 60 (3):527-545.
Contextualism and Skepticism About the External World.Tim Black - 2001 - Dissertation, The University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Skepticism and the Prediction Objection.Esben Petersen - 2015 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 5 (3):193-217.
Counterfactual skepticism is (just) skepticism.David Boylan - 2023 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 108 (1):259-286.
Your Emotions as a Skeptic.Pierre Le Morvan - 2025 - Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 12 (3):177-182.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
644 (#89,250)

6 months
32 (#284,326)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jonathan Schaffer
Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Citations of this work

The Assessment Sensitivity of Knowledge Attributions.John MacFarlane - 2005 - In Tamar Szabó Gendler & John Hawthorne, Oxford Studies in Epistemology. Oxford University Press. pp. 197--234.
Knowledge and Assertion.Jessica Brown - 2010 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 81 (3):549-566.

View all 61 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Demonstratives: An Essay on the Semantics, Logic, Metaphysics and Epistemology of Demonstratives and other Indexicals.David Kaplan - 1989 - In Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein, Themes From Kaplan. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 481-563.
Elusive knowledge.David Lewis - 1996 - Cambridge University Press. Edited by Keith DeRose & Ted A. Warfield.
Philosophical explanations.Robert Nozick - 1981 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Themes From Kaplan.Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein (eds.) - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.

View all 55 references / Add more references