Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:05:51.351Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SENSITIVITY AND CLOSURE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2014

Mark McBride
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

John Hawthorne has two forceful arguments in favour of:

Single-Premise Closure (SPC) Necessarily, if S knows p, competently deduces q from p, and thereby comes to believe q, while retaining knowledge of p throughout, then S knows q.

Each of Hawthorne's arguments rests on an intuitively appealing principle which Hawthorne calls the Equivalence Principle. I show, however, that the opponents of SPC with whom he's engaging - namely Fred Dretske and Robert Nozick - have independent reason to reject this principle, and resultantly conclude that Hawthorne's arguments in favour of SPC are not knock-down.

Type
Articles
Information
Episteme , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 181 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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

REFERENCES

Adams, F. and Clarke, M. 2005. ‘Resurrecting the Tracking Theories.’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 83: 207–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, K. 2012. ‘Methods and How to Individuate Them.’ In Becker, K. and Black, T. (eds), The Sensitivity Principle in Epistemology, pp. 81–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brueckner, A. 2004. ‘Strategies for Refuting Closure for Knowledge.’ Analysis, 64: 333–5.Google Scholar
Dretske, F. 1970. ‘Epistemic Operators.’ Journal of Philosophy, 67: 1007–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F.. 1971. ‘Conclusive Reasons.’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 49: 1–22.Google Scholar
Dretske, F.. 2013. ‘The Case against Closure.’ In Steup, M., Turri, J. and Sosa, E. (eds), Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, 2nd edn, pp. 27–40. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. 1983. ‘Philosophical Explanations by Robert Nozick.’ The Philosophical Review, 92: 81–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawthorne, J. 2004. Knowledge and Lotteries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hawthorne, J.. 2013. ‘The Case for Closure.’ In Steup, M., Turri, J. and Sosa, E. (eds), Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, 2nd edn, pp. 40–56. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Holliday, W. forthcoming. ‘Epistemic Closure and Epistemic Logic I: Relevant Alternatives and Subjunctivism.’ Journal of Philosophical Logic.Google Scholar
Korcz, K. 2006. ‘The Epistemic Basing Relation.’ In Zalta, E. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Kripke, S. 2011. ‘Nozick on Knowledge.’ In Philosophical Troubles: Collected Papers, Vol. 1, pp. 162–224. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBride, M. 2009. ‘Is Knowledge Closed Under Known Entailment? The Strange Case of Hawthorne's ‘Heavyweight Conjunct’ (and Other Strange Cases).’ Theoria: A Swedish Journal of Philosophy, 75: 117–28.Google Scholar
Martin, R. 1983. ‘Tracking Nozick's Skeptic: A Better Method.’ Analysis, 43: 28–33.Google Scholar
Murphy, P. 2006. ‘A Strategy for Assessing Closure.’ Erkenntnis, 65: 365–83.Google Scholar
Nozick, R. 1981. Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Roush, S. 2005. Tracking Truth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Roush, S.. 2010. ‘Closure on Skepticism.’ Journal of Philosophy, CVII: 243–56.Google Scholar
Roush, S.. 2012. ‘Sensitivity and Closure.’ In Becker, K. and Black, T. (eds), The Sensitivity Principle in Epistemology, pp. 242–68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, J. 1987. ‘Tracking, Closure, and Inductive Knowledge.’ In Luper-Foy, S. (ed.), The Possibility of Knowledge, pp. 197–215. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Warfield, T. 2004. ‘When Epistemic Closure Does and Does Not Fail: A Lesson From the History of Epistemology.’ Analysis, 64: 35–41.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2000. Knowledge and its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar