Description
Book SynopsisBertrand Russell famously distinguished between ''knowledge by acquaintance'' and ''knowledge by description''. For much of the latter half of the twentieth century, many philosophers viewed the notion of acquaintance with suspicion, associating it with Russellian ideas that they would wish to reject. However in the past decade or two the concept has undergone a striking revival in mainstream ''analytic'' philosophy--acquaintance is, it seems, respectable again. This volume showcases the great variety of topics in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of language for which philosophers are currently employing the notion of acquaintance. It is the first collection of new essays devoted to the topic of acquaintance, featuring chapters from many of the world''s leading experts in this area. Opening with an extensive introductory essay, which provides some historical background and summarizes the main debates and issues concerning acquaintance, the remaining thirteen contributions are grouped thematically into four sections: phenomenal consciousness, perceptual experience, reference, and epistemology.
Table of ContentsThomas Raleigh: Introduction: The Recent Renaissance of Acquaintance Part I: Phenomenal Consciousness 1: Joseph Levine: Consciousness is Acquaintance 2: Sam Coleman: Natural Acquaintance 3: Alex Grzankowski and Michael Tye: What Acquaintance Teaches 4: M. G. F. Martin: Betwixt Feeling and Thinking: Two-Level Accounts of Experience Part II: Perceptual Experience 5: David Woodruff Smith: Acquaintance in an Experience of Perception-cum-Action 6: Tom Stoneham: Dreaming, Phenomenal Character and Acquaintance 7: Jonathan Knowles: Relationalism, Berkeley's Puzzle and Phenomenological Externalism 8: Anders Nes: Conceptualism and the Explanatory Role of Experience Part III: Reference 9: John Campbell: Acquaintance as Grounded in Joint Attention 10: Jessica Pepp: Principles of Acquaintance Part IV: Epistemology 11: Richard Fumerton: Acquaintance: The Foundation of Knowledge and Thought 12: Katalin Farkas: Objectual Knowledge 13: Bill Brewer: Visual Experience, Revelation and the Three Rs
