Abstract
According to a non-realist conception, the notion of truth is epistemically constrained: the anti-realist accepts one version or another of the Knowability Principle (‘Any true proposition is knowable’). There is, however, a well-known argument, first published by Frederic Fitch (1963), which seems to threaten the anti-realist position. Starting out from seemingly innocuous assumptions, Fitch claims to prove: if there is some true proposition which nobody knows to be true, then there is a true proposition which nobody can know to be true.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Barwise, J. and Etchemendy, J. (1987), The Liar — An Essay on Truth and Circularity, Oxford University Press.
Barwise, J. and Etchemendy, J., (1990), ‘Information, Infons, and Inference’, in Cooper, Mukai, and Perry (eds.), Situation Theory and Its Applications, Vol. 1, CSLI, Lecture Notes, Number 22.
Edgington, D., (1985), ‘The Paradox of Knowabüity’, Mind 93, pp. 557–568.
Fitch, F. B., (1963), ‘A Logical Analysis of Some Value Concepts’, The Journal of Symbolic Logic 28, pp. 135–142.
Hart, W. D., (1979), ‘The Epistemology of Abstract Objects’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 53, pp. 164–165, n. 3.
Kaplan, D., (1989), ‘Demonstratives. An Essay on the Semantics, Logic, Metaphysics, and Epistemology of Demonstratives and Other Indexicals’, in Almog, Perry and Wettstein (eds.), Themes From Kaplan, Oxford University Press.
Lewis, D., (1973), Counterfactuals, Blackwell, Oxford.
Rabinowicz, W. and Segerberg, K., (1994), ‘Actual Truth, Possible Knowledge’, Topoi 13, pp. 101–115.
Segerberg, K., (1973), ‘Two-dimensional Modal Logic’, Journal of Philosophical Logic 2, pp. 77–96.
Williamson, T., (1987), ‘On the Paradox of Knowability’, Mind 1987, pp. 255–261.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lindstrom, S. (1997). Situations, Truth and Knowability: A Situation-Theoretic Analysis of A Paradox By Fitch. In: Ejerhed, E., Lindström, S. (eds) Logic, Action and Cognition. Trends in Logic, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5524-3_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5524-3_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6326-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5524-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive