Subject: Philosophy Book Title: The Knowability Paradox
The Knowability Paradox
Kvanvig, Jonathan L.
, University of Missouri
Print publication date: 2006
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2006
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-928259-3
doi:10.1093/0199282595.001.0001
Abstract:
This book examines and proposes a solution to the knowability paradox. The paradox derives from the proof that if all truths are knowable, then all truths are known, which was first published by Frederic Fitch in 1963. It identifies two problems created by Fitch’s proof: a perceived anti-realism and the paradox created by the proof. It is argued that although the two problems are related, a defence against the threat to anti-realism is no solution to the paradox. The neo-Russellian theory of quantification is considered the only acceptable solution to the paradox, since no other approach offers any hope of addressing the fundamental paradoxicality involved in asserting a lost logical distinction between actuality and possibility.