I know how to withstand the skeptic

Abstract A prominent class of arguments for external world skepticism rely on the plausible view that knowledge is closed under logical entailment. From the fact that one does not know that one is not a handless brain in a vat it can be inferred that one does not know that one has hands, in virtue of the fact that having hands logically entails that one is not a handless brain in a vat. The complements of knowing-how ascriptions, however, are not—obviously, at least—related by logical entailment to any proposition, and therefore, they resist that skeptical argument. Even if I don’t know that I am not a brain in a vat, it does not follow that I don’t know how to, say, play a drum rudiment. Thus, knowing-how can withstand closure-based skepticism about the external world.

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Publication Details

Journal
Synthese
Published
2025-02-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-024-04873-9
Primary Topic
Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

I know how to withstand the skeptic

Andrés Soria Ruiz
Synthese
Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
article

I know how to withstand the skeptic

Andrés Soria Ruiz
article en

Abstract

Abstract A prominent class of arguments for external world skepticism rely on the plausible view that knowledge is closed under logical entailment. From the fact that one does not know that one is not a handless brain in a vat it can be inferred that one does not know that one has hands, in virtue of the fact that having hands logically entails that one is not a handless brain in a vat. The complements of knowing-how ascriptions, however, are not—obviously, at least—related by logical entailment to any proposition, and therefore, they resist that skeptical argument. Even if I don’t know that I am not a brain in a vat, it does not follow that I don’t know how to, say, play a drum rudiment. Thus, knowing-how can withstand closure-based skepticism about the external world.

SyntheseVol. 205(3)
Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
Generalitat de Catalunya, Universitat de Barcelona, Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Openalex Percentile: Top 96%
Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
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