Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:59:57.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

No way around cross-cultural and cross-linguistic epistemology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Edouard Machery
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA15260, USAmachery@pitt.eduhttps://www.edouardmachery.com/
H. Clark Barrett
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095, USAbarrett@anthro.ucla.eduhttp://www.hclarkbarrett.com/
Stephen P. Stich
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. sstich@ruccs.rutgers.edu

Abstract

Phillips and colleagues claim that the capacity to ascribe knowledge is a “basic” capacity, but most studies reporting linguistic data reviewed by Phillips et al. were conducted in English with American participants – one of more than 6,500 languages currently spoken. We highlight the importance of cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research when one is theorizing about fundamental human representational capacities.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrett, H. C. (2020). Towards a cognitive science of the human: Cross-cultural approaches and their urgency. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24, 620638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chartrand, L., Barr, K., Vindrola, F., Allen, C., & Machery, E. (in prep.). Unboxing universality and variation: the distribution of epistemic concepts across culture.Google Scholar
Georgakopoulos, A., Grossman, E., Nikolaev, D., & Polis, S. (in press). Universal and macro-areal patterns in the lexicon. A case-study in the perception-cognition domain. Linguistic Typology.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 6183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kiparsky, P., & Kiparsky, C. (1970). Fact. In Bierwisch, M. & Heidolph, K. E. (Eds.), Progress in linguistics (pp. 143173). Mouton.Google Scholar
Kneer, M., Colaço, D., Alexander, J., & Machery, E. (forthcoming). On second thought: Reflection on the reflection defense. In T. Lombrozo, S. Nichols & J. Knobe (Eds.), Oxford studies in experimental philosophy. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Machery, E., Stich, S., Rose, D., Chatterjee, A., Karasawa, K., Struchiner, N. … Hashimoto, T. (2017a). Gettier across cultures. Nous (Detroit, Mich ), 51(3), 645664.Google Scholar
Machery, E., Stich, S., Rose, D., Alai, M., Angelucci, A., Berniūnas, R.Zhu, J. (2017b). The Gettier intuition from South America to Asia. Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 34(3), 517541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, D., Sytsma, J., & Livengood, J. (2013). God knows (but does God believe)? Philosophical Studies, 166, 83107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers-Schulz, B., & Schwitzgebel, E. (2013). Knowing that P without believing that P. Noûs, 47(2), 371384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, D., Machery, E., Stich, S., Alai, M., Angelucci, A., Berniūnas, R. … Zhu, J. (2019). Nothing at stake in knowledge. Noûs, 53(1), 224247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simons, D. J., Shoda, Y., & Lindsay, D. S. (2017). Constraints on generality (COG): A proposed addition to all empirical papers. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(6), 11231128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simons, M. (2007). Observations on embedding verbs, evidentiality, and presupposition. Lingua. International Review of General Linguistics. Revue internationale De Linguistique Generale 117, 10341056.Google Scholar
Vallauri, E. L., & Masia, V. (2018). Context and information structure constraints on factivity: The case of know. Language Sciences, 66, 103115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar