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What asymmetry? Knowledge of self, knowledge of others, and the inferentialist challenge
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Cassam, Quassim (2015) What asymmetry? Knowledge of self, knowledge of others, and the inferentialist challenge. Synthese . doi:10.1007/s11229-015-0772-7
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0772-7
Abstract
There is widely assumed to be a fundamental epistemological asymmetry between self-knowledge and knowledge of others. They are said to be ’categorically different in kind and manner’ (Moran), and the existence of such an asymmetry is taken to be a primitive datum in accounts of the two kinds of knowledge. I argue that standard accounts of the differences between self-knowledge and knowledge of others exaggerate and misstate the asymmetry. The inferentialist challenge to the asymmetry focuses on the extent to which both self-knowledge and knowledge of others are matters of inference and interpretation. In the case of self-knowledge I focus on the so-called ‘transparency method’ and on the extent to which use of this method delivers inferential self-knowledge. In the case of knowledge of others’ thoughts, I discuss the role of perception as a source of such knowledge and argue that even so-called ’perceptual’ knowledge of other minds is inferential. I contend that the difference between self-knowledge and knowledge of others is a difference in the kinds of evidence on which they are typically based.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Self-knowledge, Theory of, Other minds (Theory of knowledge), Inference | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Synthese | ||||||
| Publisher: | Springer | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0039-7857 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 30 May 2015 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| DOI: | 10.1007/s11229-015-0772-7 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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