Understanding what was said

Guy Longworth

pp. 815-834

in: Justine Jacot, Philip Pärnamets (eds), Games, interactive rationality, and learning, Synthese 195 (2), 2018.

Abstract

On the most prominent account, understanding what was said is always propositional knowledge of what was said. I develop a more minimal alternative, according to which understanding is sometimes a distinctive attitude towards what was said—to a first approximation, entertaining what was said. The propositional knowledge account has been supported on the basis of its capacity to explain testimonial knowledge transmission. I argue that it is not so supported.