6. The Distinctive Security Of Avowals: Ascriptive Immunity to Error

Author: Bar-On, Dorit

Source: Speaking My Mind, November 2004 , pp. 188-226(39)

Publisher: Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs

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Abstract:

The author develops further the idea, introduced at the end of Ch. 5, that avowals do not involve or require a recognition of one’s own mental state. The notion of ‘ascriptive immunity to error’ is introduced by analogy to the notion of immunity to error though misidentification. So-called ’self-verifying’ avowals of occurrent thoughts best illustrate this idea, where it seems most plausible to say that there is no separate recognition of one’s thought contents. Nevertheless, the author also suggests that all avowals have ‘ascriptive immunity’ as well. This is to be explained by the expressive character of avowals.

Keywords: epistemic immediacy; ascriptive immunity to error; self-verifying avowals

Document Type: Research article

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