Table Of ContentKnowing Our Limits
Knowing Our Limits
NATHAN BALLANTYNE
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ballantyne, Nathan, author.
Title: Knowing our limits / Nathan Ballantyne.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019006877 (print) | LCCN 2019980862 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190847289 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190847296 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190847302 (updf) | ISBN 9780190847319 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Knowledge, Theory of.
Classification: LCC BD201 .B35 2019 (print) | LCC BD201 (ebook) |
DDC 121/.2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006877
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019980862
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
For my family
My thoughts!— It is the building a house for them that
troubles me.
— Joseph Joubert (1754– 1824), Pensées, published posthumously
Every thing has its own limits, a little centre of its own, round which
it moves; so that our true wisdom lies in keeping to our own walk in
life, however humble or obscure, and being satisfied if we can suc-
ceed in it. The best of us can do no more, and we shall only become
ridiculous or unhappy by attempting it. . . . An overweening vanity
or self- opinion is, in truth, often at the bottom of this weakness; and
we shall be most likely to conquer the one by eradicating the other, of
restricting it within due and moderate bounds.
— William Hazlitt, “On the Shyness of Scholars,” 1827
Vanity and vexation close every inquiry: for the cause which we
particularly wished to discover flies like the horizon before us as we
advance. The ignorant, on the contrary, resemble children, and sup-
pose, that if they could walk straight forward they should at last ar-
rive where the earth and clouds meet. Yet, disappointed as we are in
our researches, the mind gains strength by the exercise, sufficient,
perhaps, to comprehend the answers which, in another step of exist-
ence, it may receive to the anxious questions it asked.
— Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792
A man’s got to know his limitations.
— Clint Eastwood, in the 1973 action thriller Magnum Force
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
A Note to the Reader about the Book’s Cover xiii
1. Epistemology and Inquiry 1
2. Regulative Epistemology in the Seventeenth Century 27
3. How Do Epistemic Principles Guide? 61
4. How to Know Our Limits 87
5. Disagreement and Debunking 119
6. Counterfactual Interlocutors 150
7. Unpossessed Evidence 172
8. Epistemic Trespassing 195
9. Novices and Expert Disagreement 220
10. Self- Defeat? 246
11. The End of Inquiry 269
Bibliography 303
Index 323
Acknowledgments
While writing this book, I accumulated debts to many people for helpful
conversations and written comments on draft chapters. There are too many
people to thank, but let me mention a few names here.
I am grateful to Alex Arnold, Andrew Bailey, Matthew Ballantyne, Michael
Bergmann, E.J. Coffman, Stewart Cohen, Sorana Corneanu, Thomas Crisp,
Carlo DaVia, Dennis Des Chene, Peter Ditto, Joshua Dolin, David Dunning,
William Dyer, Ian Evans, Marcello Fiocco, Bryan Frances, Daniel Greco,
Stephen Grimm, Michael Hannon, John Heil, Terry Horgan, Daniel Howard-
Snyder, Xingming Hu, Tim Kenyon, Nathan King, Hilary Kornblith, Charlie
Lassiter, Keith Lehrer, Kirk Lougheed, Michael Lynch, Jonathan Matheson,
Andrew Moon, Blake Roeber, Patrick Rysiew, David Schmidtz, Norbert
Schwarz, Roy Sorensen, Mark Timmons, Justin Tosi, Greta Turnbull, Joseph
Vukov, and anonymous reviewers. A number of friends, former teachers,
and colleagues shared insightful feedback on the project as well as gestures
of encouragement: Jason Baehr, David Christensen, Paul Gooch, Peter King,
Klaas Kraay, Sydney Penner, Andrew Rotondo, and Jada Strabbing. And
I ought to single out three people who read more rough draft material than
is right or safe: Peter Seipel, Shane Wilkins, and Benjamin Wilson. Peter and
Shane commented tirelessly on the manuscript, made it better, and were sym-
pathetic to the project when I found myself wondering what on earth I had
gotten myself into. Ben offered wise counsel, keen questions, and support
from false start, to start, to finish. His writerly powers and comedic instincts
are matchless among former Junior Resident Fellows of Massey College.
Draft versions of different chapters were tested out on audiences at Boston
University, Bowling Green State University, Loyola Marymount University,
Ryerson University, University of Arizona, University of California at Irvine,
University of Connecticut, University of Southern California, University of
Tokyo, and Washington University in St. Louis. Thanks to audience members
for discussions during Q&A sessions.
While I was at work on this project, my research assistants at Fordham
University helped me hunt down sources and scholarly curiosities. They
are Johnny Brennan, Noah Hahn, Allysa Lake, Joe Morton, Justin Reppert,
