Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Conceptual Instability and the New Epistemic Possibility

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Erkenntnis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We tend to think that our concepts are stable in the sense that, whilst their extensions may vary across distinct epistemic scenarios, the reference-fixing conditions by which we discover these extensions remain fixed. This paper challenges this orthodoxy. In particular, it aims to motivate the position that some concepts are unstable in that their reference-fixing conditions themselves vary across distinct epistemic scenarios. Furthermore, it aims to draw out the implications such instability has for epistemic possibility and apriority. I shall argue that when unstable concepts are concerned epistemic space will be widened, which in turn will restrict our a priori knowledge; and in ways that might be salient to solving certain familiar philosophical problems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Or if you deny transworld identities like Lewis (1986), you can say that the extension is the counterpart of Elvin Jones.

  2. Depending on how you carve up the space of possible worlds, the metaphysical laws might come apart from the logical ones.

  3. For more on epistemic scenarios, see Chalmers (2006a, 2009, 2011). Note, these scenarios can also be viewed as centered worlds: worlds that come marked with a center consisting of an individual and a time.

  4. Some semantic externalists, e.g. Simchen (2004), deny the coherence of such epistemic scenarios. They argue that if water actually is H2O, then there are no scenarios, even epistemic ones, where water, i.e. the substance in the actual world, is anything other than H2O. Such externalists presumably won’t be moved by the worries of conceptual instability raised in this paper. Nonetheless, their position is extreme and scarcely held.

  5. See Jackson (1998). Note that the A-intension and C-intension are roughly synonymous with what Chalmers (1996) calls the primary and secondary intension; and elsewhere (2004), the epistemic and subjunctive intension.

  6. As far as I can tell, there are no proponents of two-dimensional semantics who take there to be conceptual change on the basis of terms having different extensions across epistemic scenarios. Likewise for one-dimensional semanticists who grant the a priori coherence of situations where terms have different extensions to those they have in the actual world.

  7. Those who follow Frege (1977) may wish to identify these conditions with ‘senses’: modes of presenting the referents of our experiences.

  8. Proponents of two-dimensional semantics typically identify concepts with the A-intensions themselves, as opposed to any reference-fixing conditions, and appear to presuppose conceptual stability on grounds that the A-intensions themselves remain fixed across all worlds considered as actual despite having different extensions. Since the reference-fixing conditions are fairly closely associated with the A-intensions, this sense of stability might be tantamount to the account of stability already mentioned. Even if it isn’t, what I say about conceptual instability qua differing reference-fixing conditions plausibly also motivates instability qua differing A-intensions. Exploring exactly how this works is best saved for another day. The present paper, even though it makes use of the two-dimensional framework, is pitched to those who buy into the received wisdom concerning reference-fixing conditions.

  9. These notions are due to Chalmers (1996), Nagel (1974) and Tolman (1932), respectively.

  10. Which perhaps partly accounts for why we think ‘qualia’ is a topic-neutral designator.

  11. This, in effect, is to buy into what Johnston (1992) calls ‘the doctrine of revelation’. Also see Lewis (1995), Stoljar (2009) and Damnjanovic (2012).

  12. If you accept that the occupation of distinct roles help determine the extension of ‘qualia’ in different epistemic contexts, but are antirealist about reference-fixing conditions, you may treat this as indicative of ‘qualia’ having two distinct A-intentions. Similarly, Fregean antirealists may wish to take this to imply that the concept has two distinct senses.

  13. The discussion of the contents of colour concepts by Chalmers (2006b), and that of phenomenal concepts by Pereboom (2011) also appear to suggest conceptual instability according to the present account. However, for the sake of simplicity, I shall restrict my focus in this paper to the conditional analysis.

  14. The differences between the conditional analysis of ‘qualia’ and standard forms of analysis, as well as familiar alternatives like best-deserver theories, are explored in Majeed (unpublished manuscript).

  15. Chalmers (personal communication) raises this worry.

  16. See Haukioja (2008) and Majeed (2014) for more detailed responses to the objection vis-à-vis phenomenal concepts. For reasons already stated, these responses can be supplemented by Pereboom’s account of phenomenal concepts, while Chalmers’s (2006b) own account of colour concepts gives plausibility to shifting reference-fixing conditions more generally.

  17. Jackson (1982, 1998) appears to be a prime example.

  18. See Chalmers (2005), Alter (2007) and Yetter-Chappell (2013) for a critique, and Haukioja (2008) and Majeed (2014) for a defence.

  19. Its rival is what Stoljar (2005) calls the ‘phenomenal concept strategy’. See Chalmers (2007) for why this strategy is (arguably) unfeasible.

  20. These changes are well documented, e.g. see First (2012).

  21. The concept ‘autism’ is once more a source of controversy with the latest manual, DSM-5, having arguably changed its reference-fixing conditions yet again. See Baker (2013) for a discussion.

  22. Note, such disjunctive statements don’t mention the context-sensitive nature of the identity claims themselves, but are nonetheless entailed by conditional statements that do. So insofar as the latter are a priori, so are the former.

  23. These conclusions for a priori knowledge are implicit in Chalmers (2006b), and should not come as a surprise to proponents of the core thesis—on the proviso that also they grant the conditional analysis of ‘qualia’, and the present account of instability.

  24. This is highly speculative, but a conditional analysis of ‘goodness’ might, likewise, help undermine Moore’s open question argument in a way that accommodates our intuition that ‘good’ doesn’t mean the same thing as any natural predicate.

References

  • Alter, T. (2007). On the conditional analysis of phenomenal concepts. Philosophical Studies, 134, 235–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, J. P. (2013). Autism at 70—Redrawing the boundaries. New England Journal of Medicine, 369, 1089–1091.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R. (1988). How to be a moral realist. In G. Sayre-McCord (Ed.), Moral realism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braddon-Mitchell, D. (2003). Qualia and analytic conditionals. The Journal of Philosophy, 100, 111–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, D. (1996). The conscious mind. In search of a fundamental theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, D. (2004). The foundations of two-dimensional semantics. In M. Garcia-Caprintero & J. Macia (Eds.), Two-dimensional semantics: Foundations and applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, D. (2009). The two-dimensional argument against materialism. Abridged version in B. McLaughlin (Ed.), Oxford handbook of the philosophy of mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Chalmers, D. (2006a). Two-dimensional semantics. In E. Lepore & B. Smith (Eds.), Oxford handbook of the philosophy of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, D. (2006b). Perception and the fall from Eden. In T. S. Gendler & J. Hawthorne (Eds.), Perceptual experience (pp. 49–125). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, D. (2007). Phenomenal concepts and the explanatory gap. In T. Alter & S. Walter (Eds.), Phenomenal concepts and phenomenal knowledge: New essays on consciousness and physicalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers, D. (2011). The Nature of Epistemic Space. In A. Egan & B. Weatherson (Eds.), Epistemic modality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damnjanovic, N. (2012). Revelation and physicalism. Dialectica, 66(1), 69–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • First, M. B. (2012). The development of DSM-III from a historical/conceptual perspective. In K. S. Kendler & J. Parnas (Eds.), Philosophical issues in psychiatry II: Nosology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frege, G. (1977). On concept and object. In Geach & Black (Eds.), Translations from the philosophical writings of Gottlob Frege (pp. 31–52). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haukioja, J. (2008). A defence of the conditional analysis of phenomenal concepts. Philosophical Studies, 139, 145–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawthorne, J. (2002). Advice for physicalists. Philosophical Studies, 108, 17–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, F. (1982). Epiphenomenal Qualia. Philosophical Quarterly, 32, 127–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, F. (1998). From metaphysics to ethics: A defense of conceptual analysis. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, M. (1992). How to speak of the colours. Philosophical Studies, 68, 221–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kripke, S. (1972). Naming and necessity. In G. Harman & D. Davidson (Eds.), The semantics of natural language. Dordrecht: Reidel. Reprinted as Naming and necessity, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (1980).

  • Lewis, D. K. (1986). On the plurality of worlds. London: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. K. (1994). Reduction of mind. In S. Guttenplan (Ed.), Companion to the philosophy of mind. London: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. K. (1995). Should a materialist believe in qualia? Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 73, 140–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackie, J. L. (1977). Ethics: Inventing right and wrong. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Majeed, R. (2014). A priori conditionals and the conceivability of zombies. Philosophical Papers, 43, 227–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Majeed, R. (Unpublished Manuscript). On the conditional analysis of concepts.

  • Moore, G. E. (1903). Principia Ethica, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Revised edition with “Preface to the second edition” and other papers, T. Baldwin (Ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1993).

  • Nagel, T. (1974). What it is like to be a bat? Philosophical Review, 4, 435–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pereboom, D. (2011). Consciousness and the prospects of physicalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H. (1975). ‘The meaning of meaning’, reprinted in his Mind, language and reality, philosophical papers (Vol. 2, pp. 215–271). NY: Cambridge University Press.

  • Sidgwick, H. (1907). The methods of ethics (7th ed.). London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simchen, O. (2004). On the impossibility of nonactual epistemic possibilities. Journal of Philosophy, 101(10), 527–554.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, J. C. C. (1959). Sensations and brain processes. Philosophical Review, 68, 141–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stalnaker, R. (2002). What is it like to be a zombie? In T. S. Gendler & J. Hawthorne (Eds.), Conceivability and possibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoljar, D. (2005). Physicalism and phenomenal concepts. Mind and Language, 20(2), 296–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoljar, D. (2009). The argument from revelation. In D. Braddon-Mitchell & R. Nola (Eds.), Conceptual analysis and philosophical naturalism. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolman, E. C. (1932). Purposive behavior in animals and in man. New York: The Century Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yetter-Chappell, H. (2013). Circularity in the conditional analysis of phenomenal concepts. Philosophical Studies, 165(2), 553–572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Sam Baron for comments on the draft.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA, UK

    Raamy Majeed

Authors
  1. Raamy Majeed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raamy Majeed.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Majeed, R. Conceptual Instability and the New Epistemic Possibility. Erkenn 81, 613–627 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-015-9758-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-015-9758-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation