Engel on pragmatic encroachment and epistemic value

Duncan Pritchard

pp. 1477-1486

in: Julien Dutant, Davide Fassio, Anne Meylan (eds), Truth & epistemic norms, Synthese 194 (5), 2017.

Abstract

I discuss Engel’s (2009) critique of pragmatic encroachment in epistemology and his related discussion of epistemic value. While I am sympathetic to Engel’s remarks on the former, I think he makes a crucial misstep when he relates this discussion to the latter topic. The goal of this paper is to offer a better articulation of the relationship between these two epistemological issues, with the ultimate goal of lending further support to Engel’s scepticism about pragmatic encroachment in epistemology. As we will see, key to this articulation will be the drawing of a distinction between two importantly different ways of thinking about epistemic value.

Cited authors

Engel Pascal