How do we know how?
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Date
2007Author
Toribio, Josefa
Metadata
Abstract
I raise some doubts about the plausibility of Stanley and Williamson’s view
that all knowledge-how is just a species of propositional knowledge. By tackling the
question of what is involved in entertaining a proposition, I try to show that Stanley
and Williamson’s position leads to an uncomfortable dilemma. Depending on how we
understand the notion of contemplating a proposition, either intuitively central cases
of knowing-how cannot be thus classified or we lose our grip on the very idea of
propositional knowledge, which then fails to demarcate any clear class of cases. I
conclude with a brief discussion of the nature and role of knowledge-how, and its
relation to the important, but less explored, notion of expertise.