Engel’s dilemma and the epistemic significance of logical disagreement

Bibliographic Data

ID10814448
AuthorsFrederik J Andersen (0000-0002-8191-9611, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume206
Issue3
Publication date2025-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSynthese (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-7857 • E-ISSN: 1573-0964
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11229-025-05204-2
OpenAlexW4413874000
LanguageEN
References cited25

Hinge propositions—or simply “hinges”—are primitive certainties that we (must) presuppose to enable our entire belief systems. Recently there has been a lot of interest in hinge epistemology , which is a kind of epistemology that sets the notion of hinge at the center stage. This paper puts forward a dilemma levelled against hinge epistemologists. The dilemma is based on work by Pascal Engel ( International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 6 :228–247, 2016) and states that, given the assumption that hinge propositions are normative at all, they are either non-epistemic grammatical norms or epistemic norms. If the former is the case, hinges would appear to be irrelevant to epistemology as it is ordinarily conceived, while if the latter holds, the result would be an incomprehensible hinge epistemology altogether. After presenting Engel’s dilemma (§§ 1–2), it is utilized to tease out certain puzzling insights about the epistemic significance of logical disagreement (§§ 3–4)

Dilemma · Epistemology · Metaphysics · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of science · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy and Theoretical Science

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access