A Principled Solution to Fitch’s Paradox

Erkenntnis 62 (1):47-69 (2005)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

To save antirealism from Fitch's Paradox, Tennant has proposed to restrict the scope of the antirealist principle that all truths are knowable to truths that can be consistently assumed to be known. Although the proposal solves the paradox, it has been accused of doing so in an ad hoc manner. This paper argues that, first, for all Tennant has shown, the accusation is just; second, a restriction of the antirealist principle apparently weaker than Tennat's yields a non-ad hoc solution to Fitch's Paradox; and third, the alternative is only apparently weaker than, and even provably equivalent to, Tennant's. It is thereby shown that the latter is not ad hoc after all.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,423

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Knowability and the capacity to know.Michael Fara - 2010 - Synthese 173 (1):53 - 73.
Fitch's proof, verificationism, and the knower paradox.J. C. Beall - 2000 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 78 (2):241 – 247.
A SOLUTION TO FITCH'S PARADOX OF KNOWABILITY.Helge Rückert - 2004 - In S. Rahman J. Symons (ed.), Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science. Kluwer Academic Publisher. pp. 351--380.
Intuitionistic Epistemic Logic, Kripke Models and Fitch’s Paradox.Carlo Proietti - 2012 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 41 (5):877-900.
Defending the Possibility of Knowledge.Neil Kennedy - 2014 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 43 (2-3):579-601.
Revamping the restriction strategy.Neil Tennant - 2009 - In Joe Salerno (ed.), New Essays on the Knowability Paradox. Oxford University Press.
A new solution to the paradoxes of rational acceptability.Igor Douven - 2002 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 53 (3):391-410.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
61 (#259,066)

6 months
2 (#1,240,909)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Igor Douven
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Citations of this work

Assertion, knowledge, and rational credibility.Igor Douven - 2006 - Philosophical Review 115 (4):449-485.
Assertion, Knowledge, and Rational Credibility.Igor Douven - 2006 - Philosophical Review 115 (4):449-485.
Assertion, Moore, and Bayes.Igor Douven - 2009 - Philosophical Studies 144 (3):361-375.
Learning Conditional Information.Igor Douven - 2012 - Mind and Language 27 (3):239-263.

View all 14 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Philosophical explanations.Robert Nozick - 1981 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

View all 56 references / Add more references