Dretske and His Critics

1. Auflage 1991
ISBN: 978-1-55786-198-6
Verlag: Wiley-Blackwell

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 553 g

DRETSKE AND HIS CRITICS

Dretske and his Critics

Frederick Dretske’s views on the nature of seeing, the possibility of knowledge, the nature of content or non-natural meaning, the nature of behavior, and the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior have been profoundly important. Dretske and his Critics contains original discussions of these issues by John Heil, Stuart Cohen, David H. Sanford, Jaegwon Kim, Fred Adams, Daniel Dennett, Robert Cummins, Terence Horgan and Brian McLaughlin. Each chapter is responded to by Dretske himself.

In Seeing and Knowing (1968), Dretske argued that there is a relational sense of seeing according to which, if one sees X, then X exists (or occurs); and if one sees X, and X = Y, then one sees Y. He carefully contrasted seeing in this relational sense with seeing that something is the case. In his contribution to this volume, Heil examines Dretske’s notion of non-epistemic seeing.

Dretske is largely responsible for the relevant alternatives response to skepticism about knowledge. In arguing that we cannot know the sorts of things we ordinarily claim to know, the skeptic appeals to irrelevant alternatives that the purported knower cannot eliminate. In their contributions to this volume, Cohen and Sanford examine Dretske’s relevant alternatives response to skepticism about knowledge.

In Explaining Behavior: Reasons in a World of Causes (1988), Dretske defended a component account of behavior, and offered original, naturalized accounts of the nature of content and of the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior. In their contributions, Kim, Adams, Dennett, Cummins, and Horgan examine Dretske’s account of behavior and his naturalized account of the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior. McLaughlin focuses on Dretske’s naturalized account of content.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McLaughlin, Brian P.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Notes on contributors vii

Introduction ix

1 Perceptual experience 1
John Heil

2 Skepticism, relevance, and relation 17
Stewart Cohen

3 Proper knowledge 38
David H. Sanford

4 Dretske on how reasons explain behavior 52
Jaegwon Kim

5 Actions, reasons, and the explanatory role of content 73
Terence Horgan

6 The role of mental meaning in psychological explanation 102
Robert C. Cummins

7 Ways of establishing harmony 119
Daniel C. Dennett

8 Causal contents 131
Fred Adams

9 Belief individuation and Dretske on naturalizing content 157
Brian P. McLaughlin

10 Dretske’s replies 180

Preface 180

Perception: Heil 180

Knowledge: Sanford and Cohen 185

Behavior: Adams and Horgan 196

Learning: Adams, Dennett, Cummins, and Horgan 200

Explanation and meaning: Kim, Horgan, Cummins, and Dennett 210

Belief and belief content: McLaughlin 217

Bibliography of Fred Dretske’s publications 222

Index 225

Über Autor(innen)

Brian McLaughlin is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University.

Frederick Dretske is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.