Uniform Knowledge Attributions Essay -- Philosophy

There is a philosophic tradition going back at least to Gilbert Ryles 1948The fantasy of Mind of distinguishing knowledge howfrom knowledge that,in which the latter is taken to be a word form of propositional attitude, while theformer is taken to be a kind of ability or capacity. Paradigm examples are,respectivelySally knows how to ride a bike. (1)Sally knows that she owns a bike. (2)More recently, this distinction has come under renewed scrutiny, notably withStanley and Williamson, 2001 arguing that there really is no such distinction,and that knowledge howis really a species of propositional knowledge, thoughthe proposition is known under a different stylus of presentation than thetypes of knowledge typically expressed by knowledge thatattributions. Theirsuggestion is that all knowledge claims are syntactically and semantically uniform,so that philosophical bloodline would be needed to support Rylesdistinction. In addition, they show that Ryles argument was flawed, and provide an account that deals with m whatsoever other philosophical worries, while boastfulprima facie evidence that, contrary to what one might expect, (1) is not actuallytalking about an ability.They cope first that Ryles argument in elevate of a distinction was incorrect.Then they suggest that linguistic evidence recommends a uniform analysis forall uses of the word know. Finally, they consider various philosophical argumentsthat might motivate a departure from the linguistic structure, and findthem wanting. Thus, they suggest that we should stick with the uniformity ofknowledge ascriptions that is suggested by the linguistic data.I will argue that the linguistic data are not as clear-cut as they suggest. ... ...y and Williamson allege for (1). (Interestingly, I haventbeen able to come up with any such counterexamples with how, whether,or why, just with who, when, and possibly where.) This differentstructure can then give rise to a different sort of meaning. Thus, although few attrib utions of knowledge wh- toare similar in kind to attributions ofknowledge that, I suggest that the linguistic evidence does not immediatelyimply that all of them are.ReferencesLahiri, 1991 Lahiri, U. (1991). insert Interrogatives and the Predicatesthat Embed Them. PhD thesis, MIT.Noe, 2005 Noe, A. (2005). Against intellectualism. Analysis, 65278290.Schaffer, Schaffer, J. Knowing the answer. Unpublished manuscript.Stanley and Williamson, 2001 Stanley, J. and Williamson, T. (2001). Knowinghow. Journal of Philosophy, 98(8)411444.