Contrastivism

In today's world, Contrastivism has become a topic of great relevance and interest for different sectors of society. Its impact on people's daily lives has generated a series of debates and discussions around its implications. From its origins to its current state, Contrastivism has captured the attention of researchers, experts, professionals and ordinary people, who seek to understand its importance and consequences. In this article, we will explore the most relevant aspects related to Contrastivism, analyzing its influence in different areas and its future in a constantly evolving world.

Contrastivism, or the contrast theory of meaning, is an epistemological theory proposed by Jonathan Schaffer that suggests that knowledge attributions have a ternary structure of the form 'S knows that p rather than q'. This is in contrast to the traditional view whereby knowledge attributions have a binary structure of the form 'S knows that p'. Contrastivism was suggested as an alternative to contextualism. Both are semantic theories that try to explain skepticism using semantic methods.

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong proposed in a paper titled "A Contrastivist Manifesto"[1] a variant of contrastivism that, he argues, differs from contextualism, invariantism, and Schaffer's contrastivism.

Ernest Gellner in Words and Things "terms derive their meaning from the fact that there are or could be things which fall under them and that there are others which do not."[2]

The contrast clause

The '...rather than q' part of the knowledge attribution is known as the 'contrast clause'. This is what separates it from traditional binary formulations. Rather than taking the same road as contextualism and saying that the meaning of 'knows' can change with attributor context the contrastivist claims that it is the unspoken contrast clause that changes. This can be used to avoid skeptical problems.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sinnott‐Armstrong, Walter (2008). "A Contrastivist Manifesto". Social Epistemology. 22 (3): 257–270. doi:10.1080/02691720802546120. S2CID 145605445.
  2. ^ Gellner, Ernest. Words and Things. p. 40.

Further reading

  • Schaffer, J (2004). "From Contextualism to Contrastivism". Philosophical Studies. 119: 73–103. doi:10.1023/b:phil.0000029351.56460.8c. S2CID 9470281.
  • Schaffer, J., "Contrastive Knowledge," in Gendler and Hawthorne, eds. (2005), Oxford University Press, pp. 235–71.
  • Schaffer, J., "The Contrast-Sensitivity of Knowledge Ascriptions," Social Epistemology 22(3):235–245 (2008).


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