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Bolzanian knowing : infallibility, virtue and foundational truth

Konzelmann Ziv, Anita. (2011) Bolzanian knowing : infallibility, virtue and foundational truth. Synthese, 183 (1). pp. 27-45.

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Abstract

The paper discusses Bernard Bolzano's epistemological approach to believing and knowing with regard to the epistemic requirements of an axiomatic model of science. It relates Bolzano's notions of believing, knowing and evaluation to notions of infallibility, immediacy and foundational truth. If axiomatic systems require their foundational truths to be infallibly known, this knowledge involves both evaluation of the infallibility of the asserted truth and evaluation of its being foundational. The twofold attempt to examine one's assertions and to do so by searching for the objective grounds of the truths asserted lies at the heart of Bolzano's notion of knowledge. However, the explanatory task of searching for grounds requires methods that cannot warrant infallibility. Hence, its constitutive role in a conception of knowledge seems to imply the fallibility of such knowledge. I argue that the explanatory task contained in Bolzanian knowing involves a high degree of epistemic virtues, and that it is only through some salient virtue that the credit of infallibility can distinguish Bolzanian knowing from a high degree of Bolzanian believing.
Faculties and Departments:04 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > Departement Künste, Medien, Philosophie > Ehemalige Einheiten Philosophie und Medienwissenschaft > Kollektive Intentionalität (Schmid)
UniBasel Contributors:Konzelmann Ziv, Anita
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:Springer
ISSN:0039-7857
Note:Note: 2009 online publiziert -- Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
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Last Modified:22 Sep 2017 09:15
Deposited On:22 Mar 2012 14:18

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