Jason Stanley
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199695362
- eISBN:
- 9780191729768
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695362.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Language
The thesis of this book is that knowing how to do something amounts to knowing facts. The facts are those that answer a question about how one could do it. Elaborating the conception of knowledge how ...
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The thesis of this book is that knowing how to do something amounts to knowing facts. The facts are those that answer a question about how one could do it. Elaborating the conception of knowledge how involves presenting more generally an account of what it is to know the answer to a question. The account of knowing an answer to a question, or knowledge-wh, leads to a novel defense of a Fregean view of propositions, according to which they contain ways of thinking (or modes of presentations) of objects. In explaining and defending the account of knowing how, the book lays out a conception of knowledge of facts where possession of such knowledge is not merely passive in guiding behavior. The ultimate moral of the book is that it is our ability to acquire knowledge of facts that explains our capacity for skilled engagement with the world.Less
The thesis of this book is that knowing how to do something amounts to knowing facts. The facts are those that answer a question about how one could do it. Elaborating the conception of knowledge how involves presenting more generally an account of what it is to know the answer to a question. The account of knowing an answer to a question, or knowledge-wh, leads to a novel defense of a Fregean view of propositions, according to which they contain ways of thinking (or modes of presentations) of objects. In explaining and defending the account of knowing how, the book lays out a conception of knowledge of facts where possession of such knowledge is not merely passive in guiding behavior. The ultimate moral of the book is that it is our ability to acquire knowledge of facts that explains our capacity for skilled engagement with the world.
