Abstract
An emerging trend in cognitive science is to explore central epistemological questions using psychological methods. Early work in this growing area of research has revealed that epistemologists’ theories of knowledge diverge in various ways from the ways in which ordinary people think of knowledge. Reflecting the practices of epistemology as a whole, the vast majority of these studies have focused on the concept of propositional knowledge, or knowledge-that. Many philosophers, however, have argued that knowing how to do something is importantly different from knowing that something is the case. Hence, in this paper we turn our attention to people’s concept of knowledge-how. We present data from two experiments that employed a sentence recognition task as an implicit measure of conceptual activation. The data from this implicit measure suggest that, contrary to prominent intellectualist theories of know-how, according to which know-how is a species of propositional knowledge, people’s concept of know-how more closely aligns with anti-intellectualism, the view that knowing how to perform some task consists in having the appropriate skills or abilities.
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Notes
This, of course, is not a complete account of Stanley and Williamson’s position. They believe there to be cases in which (2) is true, but in which Hannah does not know how to ride a bicycle. In addition to (2) being true, in order for Hannah to know how to ride a bicycle, she must entertain the proposition in (2) under a practical mode of presentation. Nevertheless, we hope this brief summary makes it clear how Stanley and Williamson argue for the claim that propositional knowledge is necessary for knowing how.
While we think it is quite plausible that demand characteristics can explain Bengson and colleagues’ observed effects, we are not arguing that experimental demands do in fact explain their effect. Further empirical research is needed to assess this alternative hypothesis.
We note that while our interest in this paper is primarily psychological, we assume there is an important connection between the psychological and the linguistic support for intellectualist theories of knowledge-how. This connection is illustrated by the fact that there is a clear sense in which Bengson et al.’s study was designed to test the descriptive accuracy of Stanley and Williamson’s linguistic analysis.
Ideally, we would have been able to use the same materials as Bengson et al. to test our hypotheses. However, semantic integration tasks preclude this possibility. If a vignette is particularly short, as Bengson and colleagues’ are, then it is unlikely participants will falsely remember any sentence as appearing in the story that did not in fact appear. This would likely lead to floor effects that would make it difficult to discern any condition-level differences. In light of this issue, we attempted to strike a balance between developing a vignette that was appropriate for a semantic integration paradigm and that included elements similar to those in Bengson et al.’s vignettes.
In fact, participants were more likely to encode that Patrick was a great teacher in the intellectualism condition than the anti-intellectualism condition, though this difference was not reliable. Moreover, participants’ overall control sentence score was actually better (though non-significantly) in the ANTI condition than the INT condition, so it is not as if participants in the ANTI condition were simply worse at remembering what occurred in the story than in the INT condition.
Table 1 The proportion of false alarms for the teacher and the control sentences Our study also avoids the concern that participants are making judgments that reflect pragmatic factors downstream from their concepts (a concern Bengson himself has raised about experimental philosophy, Bengson 2013).
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Appendix 1
Appendix 1
1.1 Experiment 1 KNOW-HOW condition (Ability-Yes, Beliefs-True)
Bill arrived at the Falcon’s Nest Ski Lodge after a long, dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his foul mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him and settle in for the night in his suite at the lodge.
When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day planned on the slopes beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the room’s amenities before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” Bill thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his ski lesson the next morning.
Bill arrived at the slopes at 8 AM the following day to meet his ski instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Patrick had been a ski instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people how to perform complex ski stunts. Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation of being the best in the business.
While Bill had long been aware of Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick was capable of performing ski stunts himself. In fact, Patrick had competed in several international competitions, including the Olympics on multiple occasions. And several of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in many world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in skiing at a very early age after his family went on vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado. Ever since then, he spent nearly all of his free time both practicing ski stunts and studying the theory and technique, including some basic physics, of skiing. For instance, he correctly thought that the way he performs ski jumps was by bending his knees at the end of the ramp. After years of both study and practice, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best ski stunt instructors in the world.
After a week of training under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how much he had learned and how reliable he had become at executing some of the most complex of ski stunts. Three weeks later, he put his new skills to the test, placing first in the Greater Mountain West Invitational held near Salt Lake City, Utah. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” thought Bill. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.”
1.2 Experiment 1 ANTI condition (Ability-Yes, Beliefs-False)
Bill arrived at the Falcon’s Nest Ski Lodge after a long, dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his foul mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him and settle in for the night in his suite at the lodge.
When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day planned on the slopes beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the room’s amenities before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” Bill thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his ski lesson the next morning.
Bill arrived at the slopes at 8 AM the following day to meet his ski instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Patrick had been a ski instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people how to perform complex ski stunts. Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation of being the best in the business.
While Bill had long been aware of Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick was capable of performing ski stunts himself. In fact, Patrick had competed in several international competitions, including the Olympics on multiple occasions. However, Patrick spent nearly all of his free time practicing skiing, and no time studying the science and technique behind the sport. Nevertheless, several of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in various world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in skiing at a very early age after his family went on vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado. Ever since then, he spent nearly all of his free time practicing ski stunts but not studying the theory and technique of skiing. For instance, he incorrectly thought that the way he performed ski jumps was by bending his knees at the end of the ramp. After years of both training and practice, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best ski stunt instructors in the world.
After a week of training under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how much he had learned and how reliable he had become at executing some of the most complex of ski stunts. Three weeks later, he put his new skills to the test, placing first in the Greater Mountain West Invitational held near Salt Lake City, Utah. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” thought Bill. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.”
1.3 Experiment 1 NO KNOW-HOW condition (Ability-No, Beliefs-False)
Bill arrived at the Falcon’s Nest Ski Lodge after a long dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him, and settle in for the night in his suite at the lodge.
Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day planned on the slopes beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the lodge’s amenities before hitting the sack. When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” he thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his skiing the next morning.
Bill arrived at the slopes at 8 AM the following day to meet his ski instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Bill had heard that Patrick had been a ski instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people how to perform complex ski stunts. Supposedly, Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation of being the best in the business.
While Bill had heard lots of hype about Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick was incapable of performing ski stunts himself. In fact, Patrick hadn’t even coached in any international competitions, and certainly not the Olympics on any occasion. And none of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in any world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in skiing at a very early age after his family went on vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado. Ever since then, however, he spent no time practicing ski stunts or studying the theory and technique of skiing. For instance, he incorrectly thought that the way one performs ski jumps was by bending one’s knees at the end of the ramp. But after years of both hype and self promotion, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best ski stunt instructors in the world. In reality, Patrick spent most of his time hanging out in the ski lodge flirting with women.
After a week of “training” under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how little he had learned and how unreliable he had become at executing some of the most simple of ski stunts. Three weeks later, he put his new “skills” to the test, placing last in the Greater Mountain West Invitational held near Salt Lake City, Utah. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” Bill bitterly thought. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.”
1.4 Experiment 1 INT condition (Ability-No, Beliefs-True)
Bill arrived at the Falcon’s Nest Ski Lodge after a long, dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his foul mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him and settle in for the night in his suite at the lodge.
When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day planned on the slopes beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the room’s amenities before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” Bill thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his ski lesson the next morning.
Bill arrived at the slopes at 8 AM the following day to meet his ski instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Patrick had been a ski instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people how to perform complex ski stunts. Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation of being the best in the business.
While Bill had long been aware of Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick was incapable of performing ski stunts himself. Patrick had coached in several international competitions, including the Olympics on multiple occasions. However, Patrick had never had the ability to perform ski stunts himself, despite his extensive expertise and success at teaching others to do so. Nevertheless, several of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in many world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in skiing at a very early age after his family went on vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado. Ever since then, he spent nearly all of his free time both reading about ski stunts, and studying the theory and technique, including some basic physics, of skiing. For instance, he correctly thought that the way one performs ski jumps is by bending one’s knees at the end of the ramp. After years of both study and research, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best ski stunt instructors in the world.
After a week of training under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how much he had learned and how reliable he had become at executing some of the most complex of ski stunts. Three weeks later, he put his new skills to the test, placing first in the Greater Mountain West Invitational held near Salt Lake City, Utah. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” thought Bill. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.”
1.5 Experiment 2 KNOW-HOW condition (Ability-Yes, Beliefs-True)
Bill arrived at the Midwestern Chess Academy after a long, dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his foul mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him and settle in for the night in his hotel room.
When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day of chess beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the room’s amenities before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” Bill thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his chess lesson the next morning.
Bill arrived at the lesson at 8 AM the following day to meet his chess instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Patrick had been a chess instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people opening strategies. Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation for being the best in the business.
While Bill had long been aware of Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick excelled at playing chess as well. In fact, Patrick had competed in several international competitions, including the World Championship on multiple occasions. And several of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in many world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in chess at a very early age after his family took a trip to the National Chess Hall of Fame. Ever since then, he spent nearly all of his free time both practicing chess and studying the theory and technique, including some basic game theory, of chess. For instance, he correctly thought he won matches by controlling the center of the board. After years of both study and practice, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best chess instructors in the world.
After a week of training under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how much he had learned and how intuitive executing the most complex of chess openings became. Three weeks later, he put his new skills to the test, placing first in the Greater Midwest Chess Tournament held near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” thought Bill. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.
1.6 Experiment 2 ANTI condition (Ability-Yes, Beliefs-False)
Bill arrived at the Midwestern Chess Academy after a long, dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his foul mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him and settle in for the night in his hotel room.
When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day of chess beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the room’s amenities before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” Bill thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his chess lesson the next morning.
Bill arrived at the lesson at 8 AM the following day to meet his chess instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Patrick had been a chess instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people opening strategies. Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation for being the best in the business.
While Bill had long been aware of Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick excelled at playing chess as well. In fact, Patrick had competed in several international competitions, including the World Championship on multiple occasions. However, Patrick spent nearly all of his free time practicing chess, and no time studying the theory and technique behind the game. Nevertheless, several of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in many world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in chess at a very early age after his family took a trip to the National Chess Hall of Fame. Ever since then, he spent nearly all of his free time practicing chess and no time reading about chess or studying the theory and technique of chess. For instance, he thought he won matches by controlling the center of the board, but in fact he won by successfully isolating his opponent’s strongest pieces. After years of both training and practice, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best chess instructors in the world.
After a week of training under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how much he had learned and how intuitive executing the most complex of chess openings became. Three weeks later, he put his new skills to the test, placing first in the Greater Midwest Chess Tournament held near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” thought Bill. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.
1.7 Experiment 2 NO KNOW-HOW (Ability-No, Beliefs-False)
Bill arrived at the Midwestern Chess Academy after a long, dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his foul mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him and settle in for the night in his hotel room.
When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day of chess beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the room’s amenities before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” Bill thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his chess lesson the next morning.
Bill arrived at the lesson at 8 AM the following day to meet his chess instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Bill had heard that Patrick had been a chess instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people opening strategies. Supposedly, Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation for being the best in the business.
While Bill had heard lots of hype about Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick was quite poor at playing. In fact, Patrick hadn’t even coached in any international competitions, and certainly not the World Championship on any occasions. And none of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in any world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in chess at a very early age after his family took a trip to the National Chess Hall of Fame. But ever since then, he spent no time practicing chess or studying the theory and technique of chess. But after years of both hype and self promotion, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best chess instructors in the world. In reality, Patrick spent most of his time hanging out in singles bars flirting with women.
After a week of “training” under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how little he had learned and how difficult it was for him to execute the most simple chess openings. Three weeks later, he put his new “skills” to the test, placing last in the Greater Midwest Chess Tournament held near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” Bill bitterly thought. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.”
1.8 Experiment 2 INT condition (Ability-No, Beliefs-True)
Bill arrived at the Midwestern Chess Academy after a long, dreary day of travel. Bill had always been an irritable traveler, and sitting through a six-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport only reinforced his foul mood. However, Bill was ready to put the stresses of travel behind him and settle in for the night in his hotel room.
When he entered his room, number 407, he was pleasantly surprised to find a welcome basket sitting on the counter in the kitchenette. Next to the basket was a state of the art hot chocolate maker. Although Bill was exhausted, and had a long day of chess beginning early the next morning, he couldn’t help but indulge in the room’s amenities before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, despite the impressive appearance of the hot chocolate machine, the quality of the beverage produced was disappointing. “Oh well,” Bill thought, “I didn’t come here to drink hot chocolate anyway.” He then went to bed, ready to begin his chess lesson the next morning.
Bill arrived at the lesson at 8 AM the following day to meet his chess instructor, Patrick. Bill still couldn’t believe his luck at finding an opening in Patrick’s schedule. Patrick had been a chess instructor for 20 years, specializing in teaching people opening strategies. Patrick was always in high demand as an instructor, having a reputation for being the best in the business.
While Bill had long been aware of Patrick’s teaching credentials, he learned that Patrick was quite poor at playing. Patrick had coached in several international competitions, including the World Championship on multiple occasions. But while Patrick was excellent at analyzing the state of the chessboard, he was atrocious at anticipating and planning moves under time constraints. Nevertheless, several of Patrick’s former students had gone on to compete successfully in many world-class competitions.
Patrick had developed an interest in chess at a very early age after his family took a trip to the National Chess Hall of Fame. Ever since then, he spent nearly all of his free time reading about chess and studying the theory and technique, including some basic game theory, of chess. For instance, he correctly thought that one way to win matches is by controlling the center of the board. After years of both study and research, Patrick developed an international reputation for being among the best chess instructors in the world.
After a week of training under Patrick, Bill was amazed at how much he had learned and how intuitive executing the most complex of chess openings became. Three weeks later, he put his new skills to the test, placing first in the Greater Midwest Chess Tournament held near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I couldn’t have done it without Patrick,” thought Bill. “I’ll have to send him a thank you card.
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Harmon, I., Horne, Z. Evidence for anti-intellectualism about know-how from a sentence recognition task. Synthese 193, 2929–2947 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0894-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0894-y