CEFISES Seminar: Kristine Grigoryan, « The concept of knowability: historical approaches »

Livestream  https://www.youtube.com/@CEFISES/streams

Series: OLOFOS

Speaker: Kristine Grigoryan (KU Leuven)

Title: « The concept of knowability: historical approaches »

Abstract

This dissertation explores the historical foundations of the knowability thesis and situates contemporary debates on the knowability paradox within a broader philosophical context. While recent discussions often approach Fitch’s paradox as a technical issue in epistemic logic, this study demonstrates that questions concerning the relationship between truth and knowability have deep roots in philosophical thought.

Focusing on four major figures, such as Berkeley, Kant, Peirce, and the logical positivists, it reconstructs their positions as distinct interpretations of the knowability principle. Berkeley’s metaphysical idealism links truth to perception; Kant’s transcendental idealism anchors it in the limits of experience; Peirce’s pragmatism associates it with the outcome of inquiry; and logical positivism embeds it in principles of verification and confirmability.

The analysis reveals that Berkeley’s and Kant’s accounts, despite their historical significance, ultimately fail to uphold a coherent knowability principle without collapsing into paradox or implying omniscience. Peirce’s view faces similar challenges, whereas Carnap’s confirmability criterion, as developed within logical positivism, uniquely avoids Church-Fitch-style reasoning.

By tracing these historical developments, the dissertation enriches current discussions, showing that the knowability paradox is not merely a formal puzzle, but part of a longstanding philosophical investigation into the interplay of truth, cognition and possibility.