Certainty and phenomenal states

Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (1):57-72 (1994)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

If we agree, along with Arnauld, Berkeley, Descartes, Hume, Leibniz, and others that our occurrent phenomenal states serve as sources of epistemic certainty for us, we need some explanation of this fact. Many contemporary writers, most notably Roderick Chisholm, maintain that there is something special about the phenomenal states themselves that allows our certain knowledge of them. I argue that Chisholm's view is both wrong and irreparable, and that the capacity of humans to know these states with certainty has to do with the contingent cognitive capacities and abilities people have.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,283

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Empirical knowledge; readings from contemporary sources.Roderick M. Chisholm - 1973 - Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,: Prentice-Hall. Edited by Robert J. Swartz.
Wittgenstein and basic moral certainty.Nigel Pleasants - 2009 - Philosophia 37 (4):669-679.
Klein on Relative Certainty.Rod Bertolet - 1987 - Philosophy Research Archives 13:271-274.
Why Certainty is Not a Mansion.Elly Vintiadis - 2006 - Journal of Philosophical Research 31:143-152.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
104 (#169,441)

6 months
6 (#530,055)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Steven Hales
Bloomsburg University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

A Treatise of Human Nature.David Hume & A. D. Lindsay - 1958 - Philosophical Quarterly 8 (33):379-380.
New Essays on Human Understanding.G. W. Leibniz - 1981 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 45 (3):489-490.
Mental Causation.John Heil & Alfred Mele - 1995 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 185 (1):105-106.
Philosophical Papers.Alice Ambrose, G. E. Moore & C. D. Broad - 1961 - Philosophical Review 70 (3):408.

View all 15 references / Add more references