The Stalemate Between Causal and Constitutive Accounts of Introspective Knowledge by Acquaintance
Issue: • Author/s: Jacopo Pallagrosi, Bruno Cortesi
Topics: Cognitive science, Epistemology, Philosophy of mind, Theoretical philosophy
This paper will be concerned with the role acquaintance plays in contemporary theories of introspection. Traditionally, the relation of acquaintance has been conceived in analytic epistemology and philosophy of mind as being only epistemically relevant inasmuch as it causes, or enables, or justifies a peculiar kind of propositional knowledge, i.e., knowledge by acquaintance. However, in recent years a novel account of the role of acquaintance in our introspective knowledge has been offered. According to this novel constitutive approach, acquaintance is, in itself, a sui generis—i.e., non-propositional—kind of knowledge. As we…