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    STUDIA PHILOSOPHIA - Issue no. 2 / 2020  
         
  Article:   KNOWLEDGE-HOW, ABILITY, AND COUNTERFACTUAL SUCCESS. A STATISTICAL INTERPRETATION.

Authors:  ADRIAN LUDUȘAN.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  
DOI: 10.24193/subbphil.2020.2.03

Published Online: 2020-08-10
Published Print: 2020-08-10
pp. 51-66

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ABSTRACT.
The paper is thematically divided into two parts. In the first part, we will address the arguments raised against the anti-intellectualist thesis that ability is a necessary condition for knowledge-how, present Katherine Hawley’s proposed generic solution based on counterfactual success in order to overcome these arguments, followed by an analysis of Bengson & Moffett’s counterargument to Hawley’s counterfactual success thesis [CST]. We will conclude that Bengson & Moffett’s counterargument misses its target, so that, as far as we are concerned, Katherine Hawley’s proposal, namely CST, is safe. In the second part of the paper, we will provide a statistical interpretation of one of Hawley’s more specific proposals, counterfactual success with occasional failure [CSTF], and assess a couple of philosophically challenging consequences that follow from such an interpretation.

Keywords: know-how, ability, counterfactual success, intellectualism, anti-intellectualism, null hypothesis significance testing, effect size.
 
         
     
         
         
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