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Gate-Keeping Contextualism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

David Henderson
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Abstract

This paper explores a position that combines contextualism regarding knowledge with the idea that the central point or purpose of the concept of knowledge is to feature in attributions that keep epistemic gate for contextually salient communities. After highlighting the main outlines and virtues of the suggested gate-keeping contextualism, two issues are pursued. First, the motivation for the view is clarified in a discussion of the relation between evaluative concepts and the purposes they serve. This clarifies why one's sense for the point of an evaluative concept ought to constrain and inform one's understanding of the concept. Second, the paper explores ways of avoiding a problem in the author's earlier development of gate-keeping contextualism. The initial development of the view opened the door to a form of skepticism that would hobble an important facet of our social-epistemic lives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 83 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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