Term Paper on "Donald Davidson"

Term Paper 4 pages (1112 words) Sources: 1

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Donald Davidson and the Three Varieties of Knowledge

In tackling the problem of epistemology, Donald Davidson identifies three types of human knowledge that can be validated by empirical means. They are self-knowledge, knowledge of the world, and knowledge of other people (Davidson 205). Davidson then embarks upon the establishment of a comprehensive systematic means by which these three types of knowledge might be linked and hence legitimized in the eyes of the non-empiricist skeptic. Davidson proposes accomplishing this goal by finding answers to the three following questions:

How is it possible for a mind to know the world of nature? How is it possible for one mind to know another mind? How is it possible to know the contents of one's own mind without having recourse to external observation or evidence? (Davidson 208)

In setting out to answer these questions, Davidson provides a theory for how the three forms of knowledge are interrelated, which are meant to simultaneously serve as a rebuke to skeptics who, coming from either a Cartesian or Humean perspective, have traditionally been doubtful of such theories.

Davidson argues that it is not possible to have any knowledge without first having knowledge of both one's own mind and the minds of others. It is impossible to go through life without a means of communicating to others one's own thoughts about the external world. Thought is wholly dependent on communication. Here, Davidson briefly delves into the Wittgensteinian idea that there is no such thing as a private language (209). Language confirms its objectivity via communication with another individual; thus, there is no such thing as a language that only one person, and no other, can understand. A shared language is thus necessary for knowledge. Communication is held up as the standard of objectivity. Even if we were confronted with a being that spoke a language that we did not understand, we could take hints from the attitude contained by the other person's expression and individuate it, hence deriving some meaning from it (Davidson 210-211). The principles that are necessary for separating meaning (objective truth) from opinion (the subjective) are the principles of charity: the principle of coherence and the principle of correspondence. The first of these principles establishes a pattern of logic, while the second endows the speaker with a degree of belief as to what the interpreter takes to be true belief about the external world. To put it in simpler terms, one must have a shared view of the world with the other person that is also correct (i.e. verifiable.)

Until a base line has been established by communication with someone else," writes Davidson, "there is no point in saying one's own thoughts or words have a propositional content" (213). But in order to obtain knowledge of another's mind via communication, one must first have knowledge of the external world. This is because communication is contingent on stimulation from an external source. This is where Davidson introduces his theory of triangulation. A stimulus sends out waves to two different people at once. The two people then face one another and communicate as a means of correlating their observed reactions to that particular piece of stimuli. Thus, argues Davidson, knowledge of both the external world and knowledge of the minds of others are interrelated, and neither form of knowledge is possible without the… READ MORE

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