Epistemic contextualists hold that knowledge ascription shifts across conversational contexts; interest-relative invariantists recognize a distinctive epistemic role for practical factors such as stakes in knowledge ascription. If either of these is correct, serious pressure is put on classical invariantism since the classical invariantist rejects both claims. However, a wide range of empirical evidence now suggests that stakes do not play any role in ordinary knowledge ascription. We set out to provide what we take to be a stringent test of whether stakes play a role in ordinary knowledge ascriptions. In doing so we pursued three main questions: Is the difference in stakes appreciated by participants? Is the lack of a stakes effect due to protagonist projection? Is the effect of stakes (or lack thereof) in knowledge ascriptions cross culturally robust? Our results indicate that subjects do indeed appreciate the difference in stakes, that a stakes effect is not being masked by protagonist projection, and that the lack of a stakes effect in ordinary knowledge ascription is cross-culturally robust. In light of our evidence and a wide range of previous empirical findings on the role of stakes in knowledge ascription, one of the core motivations for epistemic contextualism and interest relative invariantism is undercut. Although we won’t defend this claim in detail here, we conclude that classical invariantism should be taken seriously, now that its challengers have been undermined.
Nothing at Stake in Knowledge* / Rose, David; Machery, Edouard; Stich, Stephen; Alai, Mario; Angelucci, Adriano; Berniūnas, Renatas; Buchtel, Emma E.; Chatterjee, Amita; Cheon, Hyundeuk; Cho, In-Rae; Cohnitz, Daniel; Cova, Florian; Dranseika, Vilius; Lagos, Ángeles Eraña; Ghadakpour, Laleh; Grinberg, Maurice; Hannikainen, Ivar; Hashimoto, Takaaki; Horowitz, Amir; Hristova, Evgeniya; Jraissati, Yasmina; Kadreva, Veselina; Karasawa, Kaori; Kim, Hackjin; Kim, Yeonjeong; Lee, Minwoo; Mauro, Carlos; Mizumoto, Masaharu; Moruzzi, Sebastiano; Olivola, Christopher Y.; Ornelas, Jorge; Osimani, Barbara; Romero, Carlos; Rosas Lopez, Alejandro; Sangoi, Massimo; Sereni, Andrea; Songhorian, Sarah; Sousa, Paulo; Struchiner, Noel; Tripodi, Vera; Usui, Naoki; Vázquez del Mercado, Alejandro; Volpe, Giorgio; Vosgerichian, Hrag Abraham; Zhang, Xueyi; Zhu, Jing. - In: NOÛS. - ISSN 0029-4624. - (2017). [10.1111/nous.12211]
Nothing at Stake in Knowledge*
Osimani, Barbara;
2017-01-01
Abstract
Epistemic contextualists hold that knowledge ascription shifts across conversational contexts; interest-relative invariantists recognize a distinctive epistemic role for practical factors such as stakes in knowledge ascription. If either of these is correct, serious pressure is put on classical invariantism since the classical invariantist rejects both claims. However, a wide range of empirical evidence now suggests that stakes do not play any role in ordinary knowledge ascription. We set out to provide what we take to be a stringent test of whether stakes play a role in ordinary knowledge ascriptions. In doing so we pursued three main questions: Is the difference in stakes appreciated by participants? Is the lack of a stakes effect due to protagonist projection? Is the effect of stakes (or lack thereof) in knowledge ascriptions cross culturally robust? Our results indicate that subjects do indeed appreciate the difference in stakes, that a stakes effect is not being masked by protagonist projection, and that the lack of a stakes effect in ordinary knowledge ascription is cross-culturally robust. In light of our evidence and a wide range of previous empirical findings on the role of stakes in knowledge ascription, one of the core motivations for epistemic contextualism and interest relative invariantism is undercut. Although we won’t defend this claim in detail here, we conclude that classical invariantism should be taken seriously, now that its challengers have been undermined.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.