Author Description
Claiming To Know Is More Than Making A Report About One's Epistemic Position: One Also Offers One's Assurance To Others. What Is An Assurance? In This Book, Krista Lawlor Unites J. L. Austin's Insights About The Pragmatics Of Assurance-giving And The Semantics Of Knowledge Claims Into A Systematic Whole. The Central Theme In The Austinian View Is That Of Reasonableness: Appeal To A 'reasonable Person' Standard Makes The Practice Of Assurance-giving Possible, And Lets Our Knowledge Claims Be True Despite Differences In Practical Interests And Disagreement Among Speakers And Hearers. Lawlor Provides An Original Account Of How The Austinian View Addresses A Number Of Difficulties For Contextualist Semantic Theories, Resolves Closure-based Skeptical Paradoxes, And Helps Us To Tread The Line Between Acknowledging Our Fallibility And Skepticism.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
How does the act of providing assurance function within the framework of knowledge claims and epistemic responsibility? Krista Lawlor, a scholar in the field of philosophy, synthesizes J. L. Austin's pragmatic insights with contemporary semantic theories to construct a systematic account of knowledge. She argues that the standard of the 'reasonable person' serves as the foundational mechanism that allows individuals to navigate disagreement and maintain the validity of knowledge claims despite inherent human fallibility.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- An integration of J. L. Austin's pragmatic theories with modern semantic analysis.
- A proposed resolution to closure-based skeptical paradoxes.
- An examination of the 'reasonable person' standard in epistemic practice.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive history of all epistemic theories.
- It focuses primarily on the Austinian framework rather than broad cognitive science perspectives.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Experts in epistemology recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of knowledge claims and the pragmatics of communication. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for those familiar with analytic philosophy and linguistic semantics.
Page Count:
231
Publication Date:
2013-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0191632252
ISBN-13:
9780191632259
Philosophy
Semantics
History & Surveys
Academic
Epistemology
Semantik
Knowledge Theory