New Essays on the Knowability Paradox

New Essays on the Knowability Paradox PDF Author: Joe Salerno
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191608688
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 897

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Book Description
In 1945 Alonzo Church issued a pair of referee reports in which he anonymously conveyed to Frederic Fitch a surprising proof showing that wherever there is (empirical) ignorance there is also logically unknowable truth. Fitch published this and a generalization of the result in 1963. Ever since, philosophers have been attempting to understand the significance and address the counter-intuitiveness of this, the so-called paradox of knowability. This collection assembles Church's referee reports, Fitch's 1963 paper, and nineteen new papers on the knowability paradox. The contributors include logicians and philosophers from three continents, many of whom have already made important contributions to the discussion of the problem. The volume contains a general introduction to the paradox and the background literature, and is divided into seven sections that roughly mark the central points of debate. The sections include the history of the paradox, Michael Dummett's constructivism, issues of paraconsistency, developments of modal and temporal logics, Cartesian restricted theories of truth, modal and mathematical fictionalism, and reconsiderations about how, and whether, we ought to construe an anti-realist theory of truth.

New Essays on the Knowability Paradox

New Essays on the Knowability Paradox PDF Author: Joe Salerno
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191713972
Category : Paradox
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
The knowability paradox suggests that wherever there is empirical ignorance there is also logically unknowable truth. This volume presents original papers in which this notorious problem was first set out, 19 papers seeking to resolve it, and a helpful introduction.

The Knowability Paradox

The Knowability Paradox PDF Author: Jonathan L. Kvanvig
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199282595
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
The paradox of knowability, derived from a proof by Frederic Fitch in 1963, is one of the deepest paradoxes concerning the nature of truth. Jonathan Kvanvig argues that the depth of the paradox has not been adequately appreciated. It has long been known that the paradox threatens antirealist conceptions of truth according to which truth is epistemic. If truth is epistemic, what better way to express that idea than to maintain that all truths are knowable? In the face of theparadox, however, such a characterization threatens to undermine antirealism. If Fitch's proof is valid, then one can be an antirealist of this sort only by endorsing the conclusion of the proof that all truths are known.Realists about truth have tended to stand on the sidelines and cheer the difficulties faced by their opponents from Fitch's proof. Kvanvig argues that this perspective is wholly unwarranted. He argues that there are two problems raised by the paradox, one that threatens antirealism about truth and the other that threatens everybody's view about truth, realist or antirealist. The problem facing antirealism has had a number of proposed solutions over the past 40 years, and the results have notbeen especially promising with regard to the first problem. The second problem has not even been acknowledged, however, and the proposals regarding the first problem are irrelevant to the second problem.This book thus provides a thorough investigation of the literature on the paradox, and also proposes a solution to the deeper of the two problems raised by Fitch's proof. It provides a complete picture of the paradoxicality that results from Fitch's proof, and presents a solution to the paradox that claims to address both problems raised by the original proof.

The Law of Non-Contradiction

The Law of Non-Contradiction PDF Author: Graham Priest
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191548065
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
The Law of Non-Contradiction-that no contradiction can be true-has been a seemingly unassailable dogma since the work of Aristotle, in Book Gamma of the Metaphysics. It is an assumption challenged from a variety of angles in this collection of original papers. Twenty-three of the world's leading experts investigate the 'law', considering arguments for and against it and discussing methodological issues that arise whenever we question the legitimacy of logical principles. The result is a balanced inquiry into a venerable principle of logic, one that raises questions at the very centre of logic itself. The aim of this volume is to present a comprehensive debate about the Law of Non-Contradiction, from discussions as to how the law is to be understood, to reasons for accepting or re-thinking the law, and to issues that raise challenges to the law, such as the Liar Paradox, and a 'dialetheic' resolution of that paradox. One of the editors contributes an introduction which surveys the issues and serves to frame the debate. This collection will be of interest to anyone working on philosophical logic, and to anyone who has ever wondered about the status of logical laws and about how one might proceed to mount arguments for or against them.

The Routledge Companion to Epistemology

The Routledge Companion to Epistemology PDF Author: Sven Bernecker
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136882014
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 938

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Book Description
Epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge, is at the core of many of the central debates and issues in philosophy, interrogating the notions of truth, objectivity, trust, belief and perception. The Routledge Companion to Epistemology provides a comprehensive and the up-to-date survey of epistemology, charting its history, providing a thorough account of its key thinkers and movements, and addressing enduring questions and contemporary research in the field. Organized thematically, the Companion is divided into ten sections: Foundational Issues, The Analysis of Knowledge, The Structure of Knowledge, Kinds of Knowledge, Skepticism, Responses to Skepticism, Knowledge and Knowledge Attributions, Formal Epistemology, The History of Epistemology, and Metaepistemological Issues. Seventy-eight chapters, each between 5000 and 7000 words and written by the world’s leading epistemologists, provide students with an outstanding and accessible guide to the field. Designed to fit the most comprehensive syllabus in the discipline, this text will be an indispensible resource for anyone interested in this central area of philosophy. The Routledge Companion to Epistemology is essential reading for students of philosophy.

Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science

Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science PDF Author: Shahid Rahman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402028083
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 618

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Book Description
The first volume in this new series explores, through extensive co-operation, new ways of achieving the integration of science in all its diversity. The book offers essays from important and influential philosophers in contemporary philosophy, discussing a range of topics from philosophy of science to epistemology, philosophy of logic and game theoretical approaches. It will be of interest to philosophers, computer scientists and all others interested in the scientific rationality.

Epistemology: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments

Epistemology: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments PDF Author: Kevin McCain
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000417026
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
In this new kind of entrée to contemporary epistemology, Kevin McCain presents fifty of the field’s most important puzzles, paradoxes, and thought experiments. Assuming no familiarity with epistemology from the reader, McCain titles each case with a memorable name, describes the details of the case, explains the issue(s) to which the case is relevant, and assesses its significance. McCain also briefly reviews the key responses to the case that have been put forward, and provides a helpful list of suggested readings on the topic. Each entry is accessible, succinct, and self-contained. Epistemology: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments is a fantastic learning tool as well as a handy resource for anyone interested in epistemological issues. Key Features: Though concise overall, offers broad coverage of the key areas of epistemology. Describes each imaginative case directly and in a memorable way, making the cases accessible and easy to remember. Provides a list of Suggested Readings for each case, divided into General Overviews, Seminal Presentations, and Other Important Discussions.

On certainty and other philosophical essays on cognition

On certainty and other philosophical essays on cognition PDF Author: Nicholas Rescher
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110319772
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 107

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Book Description
On Certainty continues Rescher’s longstanding practice of publishing occasional studies that form part of a wider program of investigation of the scope and limits of rational inquiry in the pursuit of understanding. And pragmatism forms a subtextual Leitmotiv of these essays, seeing that the linking idea at work throughout is that knowledge is a tool for the management of our theoretical and practical affairs, and that what we ask of it is serviceability for the uses we have in view.

New Waves in Epistemology

New Waves in Epistemology PDF Author: Vincent F. Hendricks
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
In the past thirty years epistemology has been one of the fastest moving disciplines in philosophy. The reason for the rapid advancement is partly due to the fact that various schools and movements inside epistemology have developed different answers to classical epistemological problems, and partly due to the fact that formal methods from logic, probability theory and computability have been utilized to deal with many of the same issues and used for applications outside traditional epistemology. New Waves in Epistemology reflects these changes by letting up-and-coming scholars describe the current trends as well as discussing the prospects for future development.

Conditionals, Paradox, and Probability

Conditionals, Paradox, and Probability PDF Author: Lee Walters
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198712731
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Conditionals, Paradox, and Probability comprises fifteen original essays on themes from the work of Dorothy Edgington, the first woman to hold a chair in philosophy at Oxford. Eminent contributors from philosophy and linguistics discuss a range of topics including conditionals, vagueness, knowledge, reasoning, and probability.