Assurance : an Austinian view of knowledge and knowledge claims / Krista Lawlor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lawlor, Krista.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Austin, J. L. (John Langshaw), 1911-1960.

Austin, J. L.

Knowledge, Theory of.

Semantics.

Physical Description:

231 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Claiming to know is more than making a report about one's epistemic position: one also offers one's assurance to others. What is an assurance? In this book, Krista Lawlor unites J. L. Austin's insights about the pragmatics of assurance-giving and the semantics of knowledge claims into a systematic whole. The central theme in the Austinian view is that of reasonableness: appeal to a 'reasonable person' standard makes the practice of assurance-giving possible, and lets our knowledge claims be true despite differences in practical interests and disagreement among speakers and hearers. Lawlor provides an original account of how the Austinian view addresses a number of difficulties for contextualist semantic theories, resolves closure-based skeptical paradoxes, and helps us to tread the line between acknowledging our fallibility and skepticism. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The speech act of assurance 9

2 Austinian semantics 54

3 Austinian semantics and linguistic data 80

4 Paradox, probability, and inductive knowledge 117

5 Idiosyncrasy, disagreement, and the reasonable person standard 151

6 Assurance and radical skepticism 189.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199657896

0199657890

OCLC:

809032384