Necessary limits to knowledge: unknowable truths

Synthese 173 (1):107-122 (2010)
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Abstract

The paper seeks a perfectly general argument regarding the non-contingent limits to any (human or non-human) knowledge. After expressing disappointment with the history of philosophy on this score, an argument is grounded in Fitch’s proof, which demonstrates the unknowability of some truths. The necessity of this unknowability is then defended by arguing for the necessity of Fitch’s premise—viz., there this is in fact some ignorance.

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References found in this work

Introduction to metamathematics.Stephen Cole Kleene - 1952 - Groningen: P. Noordhoff N.V..
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (trans. Pears and McGuinness).Ludwig Wittgenstein - 1921 - New York,: Routledge. Edited by Luciano Bazzocchi & P. M. S. Hacker.
Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits.Bertrand Russell - 1948 - London and New York: Routledge.
Relevant Logics and Their Rivals.Richard Routley, Val Plumwood, Robert K. Meyer & Ross T. Brady - 1982 - Ridgeview. Edited by Richard Sylvan & Ross Brady.
The Bounds of Sense.P. F. Strawson - 1966 - Philosophy 42 (162):379-382.

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