Perplexity and Knowledge: An Inquiry into the Structures of Questioning

Clark, M.

ISBN 10: 9024712890 / ISBN 13: 9789024712892

Published by Springer, 1972

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9789024712892

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Perplexity and Knowledge: An Inquiry into the Structures of Questioning
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9024712890
• ISBN 13: 9789024712892
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In making his distinction between revisionary and descriptive metaphysics, P.F. Strawson wrote that the former has some value provided that its "partial vision" is at the service of the latter, "which needs no justification at all beyond that of inquiry in general." (Individuals, p. 9) Perhaps we feel no need to ask what justification there is for inquiry in general. But if we do recognize any such need, then we discover that inquiry is self-justifying. The more I put it into question, the more I bring the theme of my inquiry to light in my performance of inquiring. Questioning is the business of philosophers. They are now content to leave the search for detailed information to experts in the various disciplines that have won their independence from philosophy. The questioning a philosopher conducts is of the 'second-order'. He asks about the status of various sorts of questions, the types of knowledge they yield and of con­ fusion into which they lead.