Repository | Journal | Volume | Article
Possible knowledge of unknown truth
pp. 41-52
Abstract
Fitch’s argument purports to show that for any unknown truth, p, there is an unknowable truth, namely, that p is true and unknown; for a contradiction follows from the assumption that it is possible to know that p is true and unknown. In earlier work I argued that there is a sense in which it is possible to know that p is true and unknown, from a counterfactual perspective; that is, there can be possible, non-actual knowledge, of the actual situation, that in that situation, p is true and unknown. Here I further elaborate that claim and respond to objections by Williamson, who argued that there cannot be non-trivial knowledge of this kind. I give conditions which suffice for such non-trivial counterfactual knowledge.
Publication details
Published in:
Salerno Joe (2010) Knowability and beyond. Synthese 173 (1).
Pages: 41-52
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-009-9675-9
Full citation:
Edgington Dorothy (2010) „Possible knowledge of unknown truth“. Synthese 173 (1), 41–52.