A Philosophical Investigation of the Context Sensitivity of Know: Contextualism versus Semantic Minimalism

A common and important question about context sensitivity is its extent in ordinary language. While words such as “I,†“this,†and “now†are known to be contextually sensitive, whether words such as know are context sensitive is debated. Contextualists believe that know is a context-sensitive word, while semantic minimalists insist it is not. The two groups have been engaged in a persistent debate on this issue and have not yet reached a consensus. Centering on this debate, this paper first briefly reviews contextualism and semantic minimalism’s debate over know, and then test whether it is context sensitive. This paper finds that the content of know displays some hierarchy, and to answer the question of whether it is context sensitive, logical inference must be distinguished from pragmatic inference. When expressing logical inference, know describes some state of affairs and factually certifies that the content of know is a fact; therefore, it involves no context sensitivity. While expressing pragmatic inference, however, know causes different pragmatic effects and indicates different levels of context sensitivity.