NDLI: Epistemological Skepticism, Semantic Blindness, and Competence-Based Performance Errors

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Epistemological Skepticism, Semantic Blindness, and Competence-Based Performance Errors

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Horgan, Terry Potrč, Matjaž
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	The semantic blindness objection to contextualism challenges the view that there is no incompatibility between (i) denials of external-world knowledge in contexts where radical-deception scenarios are salient, and (ii) affirmations of external-world knowledge in contexts where such scenarios are not salient. Contextualism allegedly attributes a gross and implausible form of semantic incompetence in the use of the concept of knowledge to people who are otherwise quite competent in its use; this blindness supposedly consists in wrongly judging that there is genuine conflict between claims of type (i) and type (ii). We distinguish two broad versions of contextualism: relativistic-content contextualism and categorical-content contextualism. We argue that although the semantic blindness objection evidently is applicable to the former, it does not apply to the latter. We describe a subtle form of conflict between claims of types (i) and (ii), which we call différance-based affirmatory conflict. We argue that people confronted with radical-deception scenarios are prone to experience a form of semantic myopia (as we call it): a failure to distinguish between différance-based affirmatory conflict and outright inconsistency. Attributing such semantic myopia to people who are otherwise competent with the concept of knowledge explains the bafflement about knowledge-claims that so often arises when radical-deception scenarios are made salient. Such myopia is not some crude form of semantic blindness at all; rather, it is an understandable mistake grounded in semantic competence itself: what we call a competence-based performance error.
Starting Page	161
Ending Page	177
Page Count	17
File Format	PDF
ISSN	03535150
Journal	Acta Analytica
Volume Number	28
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	18746349
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2012-06-14
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Epistemic contextualism Semantic blindness objection Cartesian scenarios Relativistic-content contextualism Categorical-content contextualism Différance based affirmatory conflict Competence based performance errors Philosophy Logic Metaphysics Epistemology Philosophy of Mind
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy

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