Relevant alternatives theory (RAT) is an

epistemological Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

theory of knowledge, according to which to know some proposition ''p'' one must be able to rule out all the relevant alternatives to ''p''.

Introduction

Relevant alternatives theory was primarily developed by

Fred Dretske Frederick Irwin "Fred" Dretske (; December 9, 1932 – July 24, 2013) was an American philosopher noted for his contributions to epistemology and the philosophy of mind. Biography Born to Frederick and Hattie Dretske, Dretske first planned to b ...

. It states that "knowing a true proposition one believes at a time requires being able to rule out relevant alternatives to that proposition at that time." One way that Dretske attempts to motivate RAT is with examples, such as the following:

You take your son to the zoo, see several zebras, and, when questioned by your son, tell him they are zebras. Do you know they are zebras? Well, most of us would have little hesitation saying that we did know this. We know what zebras look like, and, besides, this is the city zoo and the animals are in a pen clearly marked "Zebras." Yet, something's being a zebra implies that it is not a mule and, in particular, not a mule cleverly disguised by the zoo authorities to look like a zebra. Do you know that these animals are not mules cleverly disguised by the zoo authorities to look like zebras?Dretske (1970), p. 1015-16.

The relevant alternatives theorist claims that one does know that they are zebras, provided that any relevant alternatives (e.g. that they are lions, that they are mules, etc.) can be ruled out and any other alternatives (e.g. the possibility of the zoo authorities cleverly disguising mules to look like zebras) are ''not'' relevant in the context in which knowledge is being attributed. The important question, however, is: What makes an alternative relevant?

Relation to contextualism

Jason Stanley Jason Stanley (born 1969) is an American philosopher who is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is best known for his contributions to philosophy of language and epistemology, which often draw upon and influence other ...

has argued that Dretske's relevant alternative theory was the starting point for the development of

contextualism Contextualism, also known as epistemic contextualism, is a family of views in philosophy which emphasize the ''context'' in which an action, utterance, or expression occurs. Proponents of contextualism argue that, in some important respect, the ...

in epistemology, specifically with the subsequent work done by

Alvin Goldman Alvin Ira Goldman (born 1938) is an American philosopher who is Emeritus Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a leading figure in epistemology. Education and career Goldman e ...

and Gail Stine.

Notes

References and further reading

* DeRose, Keith. 1992. "Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions", ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', 52, pp. 913–929. * Dretske, Fred. 1970. "Epistemic Operators", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', 67, pp. 1007–23. * Dretske, Fred. 1981. ''Knowledge and the Flow of Information'', Oxford: Blackwell. * Stanley, Jason. 2005. ''Knowledge and Practical Interests''. New York: Oxford University Press.

External links

"Epistemology"
- an article by Matthias Steup on the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' that discusses RAT primarily in §5.3.

- a short introduction by James Pryor at Princeton. Epistemological theories {{epistemology-stub

Introduction

Relation to contextualism

See also

Notes

References and further reading

External links