Contrastivism #5 (Knowledge)

In this Wireless Philosophy video, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Duke University) introduces a new approach to knowledge: contrastivism. At odds with traditional philosophical approaches to knowledge, contrastive knowledge holds that knowledge statements are true only relative to a set of relevant alternatives. Knowledge, on this view, requires ruling out only the normal relevant possibilities, as opposed all relevant possibilities, as it is traditionally understood.

Chauncey Stillman Distinguished Professor of Practical Ethics at Duke University

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He is core faculty in the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and has a secondary appointment in the Duke Law School. He serves as Resource Faculty in the Philosophy Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Partner Investigator at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, and Research Scientist with The Mind Research Network in New Mexico.

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