Knowing what things look like
Date
01/01/2017Author
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Abstract
Walking through the supermarket, I see the avocados. I know they are avocados. Similarly, if you see a pumpkin on my office desk, you can know it’s a pumpkin from its looks. The phenomenology in such cases is that of “just seeing” that such and such. This phenomenology might suggest that the knowledge gained is immediate. This paper argues, to the contrary, that in these target cases, the knowledge is mediate, depending as it does on one’s knowledge of what the relevant kind of thing looks like. To make the case requires examining the nature of knowing what Fs look like. Is such knowledge to be understood as knowledge of a fact, or rather as a kind of ability? From the conclusion that the knowledge in the target cases is not immediate, the paper concludes that perception does not afford us immediate knowledge concerning objects’ kinds.
Citation
McGrath , M 2017 , ' Knowing what things look like ' , Philosophical Review , vol. 126 , no. 1 , pp. 1-41 . https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-3683602
Publication
Philosophical Review
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0031-8108Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright 2016 by Cornell University. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-3683602
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