Debating Self-Knowledge

Brueckner and Ebbs debate whether a person can coherently doubt that she knows what thoughts her utterances express.

Anthony Brueckner (Author), Gary Ebbs (Author)

9781107540910, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 July 2015

244 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.33 kg

'I strongly recommend Brueckner and Ebbs's book to anyone interested in self-knowledge. It is a valuable contribution both in its overall argument and in its specific discussions.' George L?z?roiu, Review of Contemporary Philosophy

Language users ordinarily suppose that they know what thoughts their own utterances express. We can call this supposed knowledge minimal self-knowledge. But what does it come to? And do we actually have it? Anti-individualism implies that the thoughts which a person's utterances express are partly determined by facts about their social and physical environments. If anti-individualism is true, then there are some apparently coherent sceptical hypotheses that conflict with our supposition that we have minimal self-knowledge. In this book, Anthony Brueckner and Gary Ebbs debate how to characterize this problem and develop opposing views of what it shows. Their discussion is the only sustained, in-depth debate about anti-individualism, scepticism and knowledge of one's own thoughts, and will interest both scholars and graduate students in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and epistemology.

Introduction
1. Brains in a vat Anthony Brueckner
2. Scepticism, objectivity, and brains in vats Gary Ebbs
3. Ebbs on scepticism, objectivity, and brains in vats Anthony Brueckner
4. The dialectical context of Putnam's argument that we are not brains in vats Gary Ebbs
5. Trying to get outside your own skin Anthony Brueckner
6. Can we take our words at face value? Gary Ebbs
7. Is scepticism about self-knowledge incoherent? Anthony Brueckner
8. Is scepticism about self-knowledge coherent? Gary Ebbs
9. The coherence of scepticism about self-knowledge Anthony Brueckner
10. Why scepticism about self-knowledge is self-undermining Gary Ebbs
11. Scepticism about self-knowledge redux Anthony Brueckner
12. Self-knowledge in doubt Gary Ebbs
13. Looking back Anthony Brueckner
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge [HPK], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ], Philosophy [HP]