Linguistics Asked on January 2, 2021
Consider the following sentence:
(1) I don’t know that John kissed Mary.
When I assert this sentence, am I contradicting myself? The reason is as follows: following Stalnaker’s view on the factivity of know, by asserting (1), I presuppose that the embedded sentence "John kissed Mary" is true. In other words, in asserting (1), I am in fact undertaking a prior commitment to the fact that John kissed Mary, namely:
(2) (It’s a fact that) John kissed Mary.
But if that is the case, how the assertion of (1) is possible? If (1) is possible, then by conjoining (2) and (1), a Moorean sentence arises:
(3) %John kissed Mary, but I don’t know that.
However, (3) is trivially odd. This rules out the possibility of asserting (1). But clearly (1) can be asserted and in fact we can find many sentences of the form "I don’t know that …" in ordinary discourse.
Does anyone have idea about the problem presented by the above examples? Thanks in advance!
Could we be looking at this from a different or incorrect view, but I do not think you are contradicting yourself.
I read your comment about "I don't know that John kissed Mary." to mean...
You as a person, could have been asked "Why did John kiss Mary" you could reply " I don't know that John kissed Mary." Implying that you don't "know" that it happened only that it was a rumor and you are distancing yourself from the fact or stating you don't have proof that he kissed her.
"I don't know that John kissed Mary." could imply you don't know who kissed who, Maybe she kissed him?
"I don't know that John kissed Mary." could be thought of in the line of a detective reviewing evidence of a crime of passion, "Why did John kiss Mary" from evidence that his lips had lipstick and she is known for wearing lipstick of the same color. The detecive could be questioning what was previously thought as a known fact and now he is looking for supportive evidence "that John kissed Mary" because John could be a cross dresser which would give reason for why he had lipstick on. Or it could support a theory that Judy kissed John which is why he had the lipstick and he never did kiss Mary.
I'm reaching for different ideas but hopefully this helps stir the creative juices?
Answered by CoffeeBaconAddict on January 2, 2021
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