Cognitive homelessness

There is a constant temptation in philosophy to postulate a realm of phenomena in which nothing is hidden from us. Rene Descartes thought that one's own mind is such a realm. Ludwig Wittgenstein' enlarged the realm to everything that is of interest to philosophy. That they explained this special feature in very different ways hardly needs to be said; what is remarkable is their agreement on our possession of a cognitive home in which everything lies open to our view. Much of our thinking – for example, in the physical sciences – must operate outside this home, in alien circumstances. The claim is that not all our thinking could be like that.The full-text of this article is not available in ORA, but you may be able to access the article via the publisher copy link on this record page. N. B. Prof Williamson is now based at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford