Knowledge, certainty and practical factors

Diplôme Thèse Knowledge, certainty and practical factors eng 2017-06-02 author Vollet Jacques-Henri 741092 director Engel Pascal 635373 10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:95005 urn:nbn:ch:unige-950054 L. 885 The thesis defends orthodoxy about knowledge by arguing against shifty views of knowledge (or 'know'). According to shifty views of this sort, pragmatic factors, such as stakes or the cost of error, affect whether one can truly ascribe 'knowledge' to someone. The thesis distinguishes knowledge and certainty, and it argues in favour of (context-sensitive) certainty norms for assertion and action: a subject S can appropriately assert a proposition p and act on this proposition p in context C only if p is certain for S in context C. These norms are established on the basis of linguistic and conversational data, but also on the basis of more principled considerations. The thesis shows that if we embrace such norms, the main arguments in favour of shifty views of knowledge (or 'know') can be dismissed. New criticisms of rival orthodox approaches are also provided. Dewey 100/501 89 Département de philosophie 3G false fcaa7710-4a71-48fe-b5e3-15a204c0c60c Thesis Public Vollet.pdf 1190477 application/pdf openAccess Faculté des lettres / Département de philosophie

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Knowledge, certainty and practical factors				2017	1,263	2,137

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Vollet, Jacques-Henri