1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism
Epistemic contextualism is a recent and hotly debated topic in philosophy. Contextualists argue that the language we use to attribute knowledge can only be properly understood relative to a specified context. How much can our knowledge depend on context? Is there a limit, and if so, where does it lie? What is the relationship between epistemic contextualism and fundamental topics in philosophy such as objectivity, truth, and relativism?
The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising thirty-seven chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into eight parts:
- Data and motivations for contextualism
- Methodological issues
- Epistemological implications
- Doing without contextualism
- Relativism and disagreement
- Semantic implementations
- Contextualism outside ‘knows’
- Foundational linguistic issues.
Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including contextualism and thought experiments and paradoxes such as the Gettier problem and the lottery paradox; semantics and pragmatics; the relationship between contextualism, relativism, and disagreement; and contextualism about related topics like ethical judgments and modality.
The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism is essential reading for students and researchers in epistemology and philosophy of language. It will also be very useful for those in related fields such as linguistics and philosophy of mind.
Introduction: What is Epistemic Contextualism Jonathan Ichikawa
Part 1: Data and Motivations
1. The Variability of ‘Knows’: An Opinionated Overview Crispin Wright
2. The Intuitive Basis for Contextualism Geoff Pynn
3. Epistemic Contextualism and Linguistic Behavior Wesley Buckwalter
4. Feminism and Contextualism Evelyn Brister
Part 2: Methodological Issues
5. Epistemic Contextualism and Conceptual Ethics E. Diaz-Leon
6. Does Contextualism Hinge on a Methodological Dispute? Jie Gao, Mikkel Gerken, and Stephen B. Ryan
7. The Psychological Context of Contextualism Jennifer Nagel and Julia Jael Smith
8. What Are We Doing When We Theorize About Context Sensitivity? Derek Ball
Part 3: Epistemological Implications
9. Epistemic Contextualism and the Shifting the Question Objection Brian Montgomery
10. Skepticism and Contextualism Michael J. Hannon
11. Contextualism and Fallibilism Keith DeRose
12. Contextualism and Closure Maria Lasonen-Aarnio
13. Lotteries and Prefaces Matthew A. Benton
14. Contextualism and Knowledge Norms Alex Worsnip
15. Contextualism and Gettier Cases John Greco
Part 4: Doing Without Contextualism
16. ‘Knowledge’ and Pragmatics Patrick Rysiew
17. Loose Use and Belief variation Wayne A. Davis
18. Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism applied to ‘knows’ Herman Cappelen
19. Interest-Relative Invariantism Brian Weatherson
Part 5: Relativism and Disagreement
20. The Disagreement Challenge to Contextualism Justin Khoo
21. On Disagreement Torfinn Thomesen Huvenes
22. Contextualism, Relativism, and the Problem of Lost Disagreement Elke Brendel
23. Epistemological Implications of Relativism J. Adam Carter
Part 6: Semantic Implementations
24. The Semantic Error Problem for Epistemic Contextualism Patrick Greenough and Dirk Kindermann
25. Gradability and Knowledge Michael Blome-Tillmann
26. Conversational Kinematics Robin McKenna
27. ‘Knowledge’ and Quantifiers Nathan R. Cockram
Part 7: Contextualism Outside 'Knows'
28. Moral Contextualism and Epistemic Contextualism: Similarities and Differences Berit Brogaard
29. Contextualism about Epistemic Reasons Daniel Fogal and Kurt Sylvan
30. Contextualism about Epistemic Modals J.L. Dowell
31. Contextualism about Belief Ascriptions Roger Clarke
32. Counterfactuals and Knowledge Karen S. Lewis
33. Contextualism about Foundations Daniel Greco
Part 8: Foundational Linguistic Issues
34. The Semantics-Pragmatics Distinction and Context-Sensitivity Maite Ezcurdia Olavarrieta
35. The Mind-independence of Contexts for Knowledge-Attributions Giovanni Mion and Christopher Gauker
36. Index, context, and the content of knowledge Brian Rabern
37. Contextualism in Epistemology and Relevance Theory Mark Jary and Robert J. Stainton.
Index
Biography
Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His research focuses on issues in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. He is the co-author, with Benjamin Jarvis, of The Rules of Thought (2013), and the author of Contextualising Knowledge: Epistemology and Semantics (2017).
"Can greater attentiveness to the mechanisms of language solve, or dissolve, central philosophical problems? In no area has this question been as deeply explored as epistemology. This remarkable volume brings together most of the major contributors to this debate in epistemology, one that has clear ramifications for philosophical methodology generally." - Jason Stanley, Yale University, USA
"An excellent resource for students and researchers interested in epistemic contextualism, with expert treatment of a broad range of pertinent topics. The editor and his slate of contributors inspire high confidence." - Ernest Sosa, Rutgers University, USA
