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The Metaphysics of Knowledge Keith Hossack (King's College London)

The Metaphysics of Knowledge By Keith Hossack (King's College London)

The Metaphysics of Knowledge by Keith Hossack (King's College London)


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Summary

Keith Hossack presents an original approach to philosophy founded on the thesis that knowledge is an absolutely fundamental relation. Taking knowledge as the key to a wide range of philosophical issues, he offers new theories of facts, content, representation, reference, truth, necessity, consciousness, persons, and language.

The Metaphysics of Knowledge Summary

The Metaphysics of Knowledge by Keith Hossack (King's College London)

The Metaphysics of Knowledge presents the thesis that knowledge is an absolutely fundamental relation, with an indispensable role to play in metaphysics, philosophical logic, and philosophy of mind and language. Knowledge has been generally assumed to be a propositional attitude like belief. But Keith Hossack argues that knowledge is not a relation to a content; rather, it a relation to a fact. This point of view allows us to explain many of the concepts of philosophical logic in terms of knowledge. Hossack provides a theory of facts as structured combinations of particulars and universals, and presents a theory of content as the property of a mental act that determines its value for getting knowledge. He also defends a theory of representation in which the conceptual structure of a content is taken to picture the fact it represents. This permits definitions to be given of reference, truth, and necessity in terms of knowledge. Turning to the metaphysics of mind and language, Hossack argues that a conscious state is one that is identical with knowledge of its own occurrence. This allows us to characterise subjectivity, and, by illuminating the 'I'-concept, allows us to gain a better understanding of the concept of a person. Language is then explained in terms of knowledge, as a device used by a community of persons for exchanging knowledge by testimony. The Metaphysics of Knowledge concludes that knowledge is too fundamental to be constituted by something else, such as one's functional or physical state; other things may cause knowledge, but do not constitute it.

The Metaphysics of Knowledge Reviews

an ambitious piece of systematic philosophy ... brimming with interesting and provocative ideas. The originality of Hossack's theses and the rigour with which he argues for them make The Metaphysics of Knowledge a significant contribution to metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. * Matthew Lockard, Mind *

About Keith Hossack (King's College London)

Keith Hossack is Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck College London.

Table of Contents

Preface ; Acknowledgements ; 1. 'S knows that A' ; 2. Facts ; 3. Concept and Content ; 4. Necessity ; 5. Consciousness. ; 6. Persons ; 7. Language ; 8. The Constitutive Thesis and the Causal Thesis ; Bibliography ; Index

Additional information

NLS9780199645954
9780199645954
0199645957
The Metaphysics of Knowledge by Keith Hossack (King's College London)
New
Paperback
Oxford University Press
2012-03-01
328
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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