"I Do What Happens": The Productive Character of Practical Knowledge. Issue 5 (15th July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: O'Connell, Rory
• Is Part Of: Canadian journal of philosophy. Volume 50:Issue 5(2020)
• Page Start: 670
• Page End: 686
• Publication Date: 2020-07-15
• Subjects: Philosophy of action, -- practical knowledge, -- practical reasoning, -- Elizabeth Anscombe, -- know-how, -- skill; Philosophy -- Periodicals; 105
• DOI: 10.1017/can.2020.12
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0045-5091

Abstract

Abstract: Elizabeth Anscombe introduced the notion of "practical knowledge" into contemporary philosophy. Philosophers of action have criticized Anscombe's negative characterization of such knowledge as "non-observational, " but have recently come to pay more attention to her positive characterization of practical knowledge as "the cause of what it understands." I argue that two recent Anscombean accounts of practical knowledge, "Formalism" and "Normativism, " each fail to explain the productive character of practical knowledge in a way that secures its status as non-observational. I argue that to do this, we must appreciate the role of know-how or skill in practical knowledge.