Two for the knowledge goal of inquiry

Kelp, C. (2014) Two for the knowledge goal of inquiry. American Philosophical Quarterly, 51(3), pp. 227-232.

Abstract

Suppose you ask yourself whether your father's record collection includes a certain recording of The Trout and venture to find out. At that time, you embark on an inquiry into whether your father owns the relevant recording. Your inquiry is a project with a specific goal: finding out whether your father owns the recording. This fact about your inquiry generalizes: inquiry is a goal-directed enterprise. A specific inquiry can be individuated by the question it aims to answer and by who aims to answer the question. Your inquiry into whether your father owns the recording differs from your inquiry into how many records your father owns because different questions are being asked. Your inquiry into whether your father owns the recording differs from my inquiry into whether he does because different people are inquiring. The goal of inquiry into a given question by an agent, α, can be characterized, neutrally, as α's having the answer to that question. I will here focus only on inquiries into whether questions and characterize the goal of inquiry into whether φ by α as α's having the answer to the question whether φ.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kelp, Professor Christoph
• Authors: Kelp, C.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy
• Journal Name: American Philosophical Quarterly
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• ISSN: 0003-0481
• ISSN (Online): 2152-1123
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2014 Board of Turstees of the University of Illinois
• First Published: First published in American Philosophical Quarterly 51(3): 227-232
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy