Truth and superassertibility

Philosophical Studies

Volumn 93, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 1-19

  Kvanvig, J L ^a  

^a TEXAS A AND M UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 53149147759     PISSN: 00318116     EISSN: 15730883     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1004200827651     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. I do not here assert the soundness of Wright's argument, but only to its prima facie appeal. For rejoinders, see Neil Tennant, "On Negation, Truth, and Warranted Assertibility," Analysis 54 (1995), pp. 98-104;
2. Stewart Shapiro and William W. Taschek, "Intuitionism, Pluralism, and Cognitive Command," Journal of Philosophy 20 (1996), pp. 74-88;
3. and Michael Hand, "Radical Anti-Realism and Neutral States of Information," Philosophical Topics, forthcoming.
4. Wright says as much in the discussion notes to the chapter.
5. Van Fraassen and Foley, in particular.
6. Don't worry that perhaps no human knowledge counts as Hintikka-knowledge. The most that would be needed here is the coherence of the concept, and if an omniscient being is possible, that shows that the concept is coherent.
7. I owe this point to Michael Hand, from discussion with whom I have benefited immensely.
8. Bracketing, of course, anti-realist conception of truth according to which, for any proposition whatsoever, it is possible that it is known.
9. For the most sustained and detailed attempt to understand the nature of defeat and its relationship to knowledge, see Peter Klein, Certainty: A Refutation of Skepticism (Minneapolis, 1981).
10. This example is drawn from Keith Lehrer and Thomas D. Paxson, Jr., "Knowledge: Undefeated Justified True Belief," pp. 146-154 in George S. Pappas and Marshall Swain, eds., Essays on Knowledge and Justification (Ithaca, 1978).
11. I use the term 'indefeasible' here so that it entails truth, and that is why it cannot be enhanced by further learning. In order to achieve this result definitionally, we need only countenance the falsity of the belief as itself a possible defeater.