Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Klassische Deutsche Philosophie

Abstract:

In “Knowing How,” Stanley and Williamson (S&W) reject the widely accepted Rylean view that there is a fundamental distinction between knowledge-how and knowledge-that. Their argument proceeds from claims about the syntax and semantics of ascriptions of knowledge-how to the “Intellectualist” conclusion that “knowledge-how is simply a species of knowledge-that.”

In response, I argue, first, that the Intellectualist thesis is false. The core of the case against the thesis comes from something ignored by S&W, the science of knowledge-how. I argue, second, that S&W’s methodology of deriving a theory of knowledge-how from a linguistic theory of ascriptions, without any attention at all to the science of knowledge-how, is deeply misguided.