Knowing-who in quantified epistemic logic

Maria Aloni

pp. 109-129

in: Hans van Ditmarsch, Paul-Gabriel Sandu (eds), Jaakko Hintikka on knowledge and game-theoretical semantics, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

This article proposes an account of knowing-who constructions within a generalisation of Hintikka's (Knowledge and belief. Cornell UP, Ithaca, MA, [10]) quantified epistemic logic employing the notion of a conceptual cover Aloni PhD thesis [1]. The proposed logical system captures the inherent context-sensitivity of knowing-wh constructions Boër and Lycan (Knowing Who. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, [5]), as well as expresses non-trivial cases of so-called concealed questions Heim (Semantics from different points of view. Springer, Berlin, [9]). Assuming that quantifying into epistemic contexts and knowing-who are linked in the way Hintikka had proposed, the context dependence of the latter will translate into a context dependence of de re attitude ascriptions and this will result in a ready account of a number of traditionally problematic cases including Quine's well-known double vision puzzles Quine (The ways of Paradox and other essays. Random House, New York, [16]).

Cited authors

Quine Willard Van Orman