Defend Sensitivity: Closure and the Red Barn

Speaker:Huiming REN, Shandong University

Venue: 311, Building 4, Chengjun Yuan

Abstract: I first argue that one does not therefore know by closure that φV~e, where φ is a logical consequence of p, if one comes to know that p on the basis of e. As a consequence, it is not wrong for Nozick to deny that if I know that I have hands, then I know that I am not a BIV, even though he and Dretske fail to provide an independent reason for doing so. I then argue that in the famous red-barn thought experiment, my belief that the object is a red barn is not sensitive and therefore, Nozick does not have to deny that if I know that the object is a red barn, then I know that it is a barn. At the end, I argue that safety is not preferable over sensitivity in so far as avoiding skepticism is concerned.