Know-How as Competence: A Rylean Responsibilist Account

By David Löwenstein

What does it mean to know how to do something? This book develops a comprehensive account of know-how, a crucial epistemic goal for all who care about getting the facts right, but also their acts right. It proposes a novel interpretation of the seminal work of Gilbert Ryle, according to which know-how is a competence, a complex ability to do well in an activity in virtue of an understanding of what it takes to do so. This idea is developed into a full-fledged account, Rylean responsibilism, which understands know-how in terms of the normative guidance and responsible control of one's acts. Within the complex current debate about know-how, this view occupies a middle ground position between the intellectualist claim that know-how is propositional knowledge and the anti-intellectualist claim that know-how just is ability. In genuine know-how, practical ability and guiding intellect are both necessary, but essentially intertwined.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3465038800
• ISBN13: 9783465038801
• Release Date: October 2016
• Publisher: Verlag Vittorio Klostermann
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"