On the traditional Cartesian picture, knowledge of one's own internal
world -- of one's current thoughts and feelings -- is the
unproblematic foundation for all knowledge. The philosophical problem
is to explain how we can move beyond this knowledge, how we can form a
conception of an objective world, and how we can know that the world
answers to our conception of it. This book is in the anti-Cartesian
tradition that seeks to reverse the order of explanation. Robert
Stalnaker argues that we can understand our knowledge of our thoughts
and feelings only by viewing ourselves from the outside, and by seeing
our inner lives as features of the world as it is in itself. He uses
the framework of possible worlds both to articulate a conception of
the world as it is in itself, and to represent the relation between
our objective knowledge and our knowledge of our place in the world.
He explores an analogy between knowledge of one's own phenomenal
experience and self-locating knowledge -- knowledge of who one is, and
what time it is. He criticizes the philosopher's use of the notion of
acquaintance to characterize our intimate epistemic relation to the
phenomenal character of our experience, and explores the tension
between an anti-individualist conception of the contents of thought
and the thesis that we have introspective access to that content. The
conception of knowledge that emerges is a contextualist and
anti-foundationalist one but, it is argued, a conception that is
compatible with realism about both the external and internal worlds.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780191615535
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic UK
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter