Linguistique de l’écrit

Revue internationale en libre accès

Revue | Volume | Article

167236

Knowledge as potential for action

Stephen Hetherington

pp. n/a

Résumé

Can we conceive cogently of all knowledge – in particular, all knowledge of truths – as being knowledge-how? This paper provides reasons for thinking not only that is this possible, but that it is conceptually advantageous and suggestive. Those reasons include adaptations of, and responses to, some classic philosophical arguments and ideas, from Descartes, Hume, Peirce, Mill, and Ryle. The paper’s position is thus a practicalism – a kind of pragmatism – about the nature of knowledge, arguing that all knowledge is knowledge-how to act – to do this, to do that. Such a conception can include, too, a distinctive view of the metaphysical relation between knowledge and belief. We see that, contrary to what most contemporary epistemologists say, knowledge need not be a form of belief. Instead, a belief that p can be a way simply of enriching or strengthening knowledge that p. It can do this in a paracticalist way, by allowing one to do more with the knowledge.

Détails de la publication

Publié dans:

(2017) Pragmatism and common-Sense. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 9 (2).

DOI: 10.4000/ejpap.1070

Citation complète:

Hetherington Stephen, 2017, Knowledge as potential for action. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 9 (2), Pragmatism and common-Sense, n/a. https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.1070.