Cassam, Quassim Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge
Print publication date: 2007 (this edition)
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online:
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-920831-9
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208319.003.0001
 

Quassim Cassam
How-possible questions matter in philosophy because, as Nozick points out, ‘many philosophical problems are ones of understanding how something is or can be possible’. A response to a how-possible question that operates on all levels is what is called a multi-levels response. This chapter defends this approach to epistemological how-possible questions. A multi-levels response operates at three levels. Level 1 identifies means of acquiring the allegedly problematic knowledge. Level 2 is the obstacle-removing level, the level at which obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge by the proposed means are overcome or dissipated. Level 3 seeks to identify necessary background conditions for the acquisition of the relevant knowledge by the proposed means.
Keywords: how-possible questions, multi-levels response, Kant's problem, perceptual knowledge, anti-minimalism
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208319.003.0001
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