Abstract
In this paper we lay out the conceptual and technical foundations of a general framework that will allow us to talk and reason about the connections between knowledge and context. Based on the notion of “contextual models” !contextual , a first section on “static formalism ” will make it possible to capture using the same language and the same semantics , a number of epistemological positions amongst those most prominent in the recent philosophical literature on knowledge , and to investigate the logical properties and connections they end up attaching to their respective notions of knowledge and context . This “static” component is augmented with a “dynamic” formalization of context based on a simplified version of Discourse Representation Theory, which will allow us to account for the contribution of epistemic statements to the evolution of the “score” of a conversation about knowledge .
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
It is very common in the literature to find this position associated with the name G. E. Moore, and for this reason called “Moorean invariantism”. We find it more convenient to refer to Austin instead.
- 2.
We mention all four logically possible options here for the sake of exhaustiveness, although we will not examine all of them. To be precise, option 2.1 will not be relevant to our purpose. See Footnote 6.
- 3.
- 4.
Note in passing that they make the epistemic relevance set constant across worlds too, differing in this respect from “non-absolutist”, “circumstance-sensitive” forms of invariantism à la Dretske or Nozick, not treated here.
- 5.
Here, some proponents of contextualism might disagree, as they would be willing to maintain that contextualism is true despite most people lacking awareness of this fact, and being semantically blind to the context-dependence of knowledge ascriptions ascription. This is how, for instance, DeRose seems to conceive of the position. In Lihoreau and Rebuschi (2009), we insist on the distinction between these two construals of the contextualist stance and explore their respective bearings on the issue of epistemic factivity.
- 6.
As mentioned in Footnote 2, for our purposes, we do not need definition (2.1):
$$\displaystyle{ \mathcal{M},c_{i},w\models _{2.1}K_{i}\varphi \ \mathrm{iff\ for\ every}\ w^\prime,\ \mathrm{ if}\ \mathcal{K}_{j}ww^\prime\ \mathrm{and}\ w^\prime \in \mathcal{R}(c_{j})(w)\ \mathrm{then}\ \mathcal{M},c_{i},w^\prime\models \varphi }$$which says that I (attributor) can truly say that you (=subject) know that \(\varphi\) when I can truly say, against your epistemic standards, that given your evidence, you know that \(\varphi\). It might, however, prove useful if we augmented the non-modal part of the language with indexical expressions in order to account for such knowledge ascriptions ascription as “So-and-so knows that I am here” or “I know that you are there”.
- 7.
- 8.
Work in this vein can be found in our paper on “contextual epistemic !epistemic logic” (Rebuschi and Lihoreau 2008).
References
C.E. Alchourrón, P. Gardenfors, D. Makinson, On the logic of theory change: partial meet contraction and revision functions. J. Symbol. Log. 50, 510–530 (1985)
S. Artemov, E. Nogina, Introducing justification into epistemic logic. J. Log. Comput. 15, 1059–1073 (2005)
J. Austin, Other minds. Proc. Aristot. Soc. Suppl. 20, 148–187 (1946)
S. Cohen, Contextualism, skepticism, and the structure of reasons. Philos. Perspect. 13, 57–89 (1999)
S. Cohen, Contextualism and skepticism, in Scepticism: Philosophical Issues, vol. 10, ed. by E. Sosa, E. Villanueva (Blackwell, Boston, 2000), pp. 94–107
K. DeRose, Contextualism and knowledge attributions. Philos. Phenomenol. Res. 52, 913–929 (1992)
K. DeRose, Solving the skeptical problem. Philos. Rev. 104, 1–52 (1995)
K. DeRose, Contextualism: an explanation and defense, in The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology, ed. by J. Greco, E. Sosa (Blackwell, Malden, 1999), pp. 187–205
R. Fagin, J. Halpern et al., Reasoning About Knowledge (MIT, Cambridge, 1995)
E. Geurts, B. Maier, Layered DRT, ms. (7 Nov 2003)
M. Groenendijk, J. Stokhof, Dynamic predicate logic. Linguist. Philos. 14, 39–100 (1991)
S.O. Hansson, Ten philosophical problems in belief revision. J. Log. Comput. 13, 37–49 (2003)
J. Hawthorne, Knowledge and Lotteries (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004)
M. Heller, Relevant alternatives and closure. Australas. J. Philos. 77, 196–208 (1999a)
M. Heller, The proper role for contextualism in an anti-luck epistemology. Philos. Perspect. 13, 115–129 (1999b)
J. Hintikka, Knowledge and Belief: An Introduction to the Logic of the Two Notions (Cornell University Press, New York, 1962)
H. Kamp, A theory of truth and semantic representation, in Formal Methods in the Study of Language, ed. by J. Stokhof et al. (Matematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, 1981), pp. 277–322
H. Kamp, U. Reyle, From Discourse to Logic (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1993)
D. Lewis, Scorekeeping in a language game. J. Philos. Log. 8, 339–59 (1979)
D. Lewis, Elusive knowledge. Australas. J. Philos. 74, 549–567 (1996)
F. Lihoreau, M. Rebuschi, Contextualism and the factivity of knowledge, in Scientific Knowledge and Common Knowledge, ed. by D. Lukasiewicz, R. Pouivet (Publishing House Epigram and University of Kazimierz Wielki Press, Bydgoszcz, 2009). pp. 209–224
J. MacFarlane, The assessment sensitivity of knowledge attributions, in Oxford Studies in Epistemology, ed. by T. Szabó, J. Hawthorne (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005)
M. Rebuschi, F. Lihoreau, Contextual epistemic logic, in Dialogues, Logics and Other Strange Things, ed. by C. Degrémont, L. Keiff, H. Rueckert (College Publications, London, 2008), pp. 305–335
R. Stalnaker, On logics of knowledge and belief. Philos. Stud. 128, 169–199 (2006)
J. Stanley, Knowledge and Practical Interests (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005)
P. Unger, A defense of scepticism. Philos. Rev. 80, 198–219 (1971)
H. van Ditmarsch, W. van der Hoek, B. Kooi, Dynamic Epistemic Logic (Springer, Dordrecht, 2008)
J. van Eijk, Discourse representation theory, in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edn. (Elsevier, Boston, 2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lihoreau, F., Rebuschi, M. (2014). Reasoning About Knowledge in Context. In: Rebuschi, M., Batt, M., Heinzmann, G., Lihoreau, F., Musiol, M., Trognon, A. (eds) Interdisciplinary Works in Logic, Epistemology, Psychology and Linguistics. Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03044-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03044-9_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-03043-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-03044-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)