<p>An influential approach to Fitch’s Paradox of knowability is the Domain Variation Analysis. This article presents a novel argument against this approach. Fitch’s Paradox comes in different varieties. There is the common version of the paradox involving the principle that every truth is knowable, and there is also a slightly different version of the paradox involving the principle that every truth is knowable <i>by us</i>. There are good reasons to suppose that if the Domain Variation Analysis qualifies as a successful solution to Fitch’s Paradox, it should be able to solve <i>both</i> versions of the paradox. However, it will be argued in this paper that, though the Domain Variation Analysis solves the common version of the paradox, it fails to solve this slightly different version of the paradox. Thus, the credibility of the Domain Variation Analysis would be very significantly undermined.</p>

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The Paradox of Knowability and Domain Variation

  • Chaoan He

摘要

An influential approach to Fitch’s Paradox of knowability is the Domain Variation Analysis. This article presents a novel argument against this approach. Fitch’s Paradox comes in different varieties. There is the common version of the paradox involving the principle that every truth is knowable, and there is also a slightly different version of the paradox involving the principle that every truth is knowable by us. There are good reasons to suppose that if the Domain Variation Analysis qualifies as a successful solution to Fitch’s Paradox, it should be able to solve both versions of the paradox. However, it will be argued in this paper that, though the Domain Variation Analysis solves the common version of the paradox, it fails to solve this slightly different version of the paradox. Thus, the credibility of the Domain Variation Analysis would be very significantly undermined.