The Relationship Between Hinge Propositions and Epistemic Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach

ABSTRACT Hinge epistemology maintains that certain propositions must stand fast for our epistemic practices to be possible. Yet the notion of ‘practice’ and its relation to hinges remains undeveloped. This paper offers a Wittgensteinian reading of practices and develops more explicitly their connection with hinge propositions. On this view, hinges are understood as rules that give epistemic practices their own internal structure, motivating a contextualist account of hinges. The paper then considers some prominent critiques of hinge contextualism and suggests that they can be avoided. The aim is to develop a systematic connection between hinge epistemology and Wittgenstein's conception of practice, extending the application of hinges beyond quotidian certainties to the propositions that structure different epistemic practices.