Nonpropositional Intellectualism

Abstract

The question of the grounds of knowledge how can be distinguished from the question of the nature of knowledge how. We defend an intellectualist answer to the former question and an objectualist (nonpropositionalist, nondispositionalist) answer to the latter question. The central idea is that to know how to A is to stand in an objectual understanding relation to a way of A-ing. We propose a theory of the relevant type of understanding in terms of conceptions of ways of acting, grounded in propositional attitudes. The resulting view-an objectualist intellectualism-preserves all three of the following attractive theses: (1) knowing how is not merely a kind of knowing that, (2) knowing how is practical (it bears a substantive connection to action), and (3) knowing how is a cognitive achievement (it is a form of practical knowledge). Show more