Abstract
David Lewis, Stewart Cohen, and Keith DeRose have proposed that sentences of the form “S knows P” are indexical, and therefore differ in truth value from one context to another.1 On their indexical contextualism, the truth value of “S knows P” is determined by whether S meets the epistemic standards of the speaker’s context. I will not be concerned with relational forms of contextualism, according to which the truth value of “S knows P” is determined by the standards of the subject S’s context, regardless of the standards applying to the speaker making the knowledge claim. Relational contextualism is a form of normative relativism. Indexical contextualism is a semantic theory. When the subject is the speaker, as when “S” is the first person pronoun “I,” the two forms of contextualism coincide. But otherwise, they diverge. I critically examine the principal arguments for indexicalism, detail linguistic evidence against it, and suggest a pragmatic alternative.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
D.B. Annis (1978) ArticleTitle‘A Contextualist Theory of Epistemic Justification’ American Philosophical Quarterly 15 213–219
J.L. Austin (1961) ‘Other Minds’ Oxford University Press Oxford 76–116
S. Cohen (1986) ArticleTitle‘Knowledge and Context’ Journal of Philosophy 83 574–583
S. Cohen (1987) ArticleTitle‘Knowledge, Context, and Social Standards’ Synthese 73 3–26
S. Cohen (1988) ArticleTitle‘How to Be a Fallibilist’ Philosophical Perspectives 2 581–605
S. Cohen (1999) ArticleTitle‘Contextualism, Skepticism, and the Structure of Reasons’ Philosophical Perspectives 13 57–89
S. Cohen (2000a) ArticleTitle‘Contextualism and Skepticism’ Philosophical Issues 10 94–107
S. Cohen (2000b) ArticleTitle‘Replies’ Philosophical Issues 10 132–139
W.A. Davis (1998) Implicature: Intention, Convention, and Principle in the Failure of Gricean Theory Cambridge University Press Cambridge
W.A. Davis (2003) Meaning, Expression, and Thought Cambridge University Press New York
K. DeRose (1995) ArticleTitle‘Solving the Skeptical Problem’ Philosophical Review 104 1–52
F. Dretske (1970) ArticleTitle‘Epistemic Operators’ Journal of Philosophy 67 1007–1023
F. Dretske (1981) ArticleTitleThe Pragmatic Dimension of Knowledge Philosophical Studies 40 363–378
F. Feldman (1999) ArticleTitle‘Contextualism and Skepticism’ Philosophical Perspectives 13 91–114
R.J. Fogelin (2000a) ArticleTitle‘Contextualism and Externalism: Trading in one Form of Skepticism for Another’ Philosophical Issues 10 43–57
R.J. Fogelin (2000b) ArticleTitle‘Replies’ Philosophical Issues 10 86–93
R. Fumerton (1987) Nozick’s Epistemology S. Luper-Foy (Eds) The Possibility of Knowledge: Nozick and His Critics Rowman and Littlefield Totowa, NJ 163–181
H.P. Grice (1975) Logic and Conversation P. Cole J. Morgan (Eds) Syntax and Semantics Academic Press New York
H.P. Grice (1978) Further Notes on Logic and Conversation P. Cole (Eds) Syntax and Semantics Academic Press New York 113–128
H.P. Grice (1981) Presupposition and Conversational Implicature P. Cole (Eds) Radical Pragmatics Academic Press New York 183–198
J. Hawthorne (2000) ArticleTitle‘Reply to Cohen’ Philosophical Issues 10 117–120 Occurrence Handle10.1111/j.1758-2237.2000.tb00015.x
M. Heller (1999) ArticleTitle‘Contextualism and Anti-luck Epistemology’ Philosophical Perspectives 13 115–129
L.R. Horn (1992) Pragmatics, Implicature and Presupposition W. Bright (Eds) International Encyclopedia of Linguistics Oxford University Press New York 260–266
P. Klein (2000) ArticleTitle‘Contextualism and Academic Skepticism’ Philosophical Issues 10 108–116
H. Kornblith (2000) ArticleTitle‘The Contextualist Evasion of Epistemology’ Philosophical Issues 10 24–32
G. Leech (1983) Principles of Pragmatics Longmans London
K. Lehrer (2000) ArticleTitle‘Sensitivity, Indiscernibility, and Knowledge’ Philosophical Issues 10 33–37
S.C. Levinson (1983) Pragmatics Cambridge University Press Cambridge
D. Lewis (1979) Scorekeeping in a Language Game R. Bäuerle (Eds) et al. Semantics from Different Points of View Springer Berlin 172–187
D. Lewis (1996) ArticleTitle‘Elusive Knowledge’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 549–567
S. Neale (1990) ArticleTitle‘Descriptive Pronouns and Donkey Anaphora’ Journal of Philosophy 87 113–150
S. Neale (1992) ArticleTitle‘Paul Grice and the Philosophy of Language’ Linguistics and Philosophy 15 509–559
R. Nozick (1981) Philosophical Explanations Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA
J.F. Rosenberg (2000) ArticleTitle‘Scrutinizing a Trade’ Philosophical Issues 10 58–66
J.M. Sadock (1978) On Testing for Conversational Implicature P. Cole (Eds) Syntax and Semantics Academic Press Academic Press 281–297
S. Schiffer (1996) ArticleTitle‘Contextualist Solutions to Scepticism’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 96 317–333
J. Searle (1975) Indirect Speech Acts P. Cole J.L. Morgan (Eds) Syntax and Semantics Academic Press New York 59–82
E. Sosa (1988) ArticleTitle‘Knowledge in Context, Skepticism in Doubt: The Virtue of our Faculties’ Philosophical Perspectives 2 139–155
E. Sosa (2000) ArticleTitle‘Skepticism and Contextualism’ Philosophical Issues 10 1–18
P. Unger (1975) Ignorance: A Case for Skepticism Clarendon Press Oxford
P. Unger (1984) Philosophical Relativity University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis
L.M. Valdés-Villanueva (2000) ArticleTitle‘Contextualism and Levels of Scrutiny’ Philosophical Issues 10 72–79
J. Vogel (1999) ArticleTitle‘The New Relevant Alternatives Theory’ Philosophical Perspectives 13 155–180
M.J. Williams (2000) ArticleTitle‘Is Contextualism Statable?’ Philosophical Issues 10 80–85
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davis, W.A. Are Knowledge Claims Indexical?. Erkenntnis 61, 257–281 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-004-9276-4
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-004-9276-4