View source for Epistemic privilege

{{Short description|Philosophical concept}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2018}}
'''Epistemic privilege''' or '''privileged access''' is the [[Philosophical theory|philosophical concept]] that certain [[knowledge]], such as knowledge of one's own [[thought]]s, can be apprehended {{em|directly}} by a given person and not by others.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Heil|first=John|title=Privileged Access|journal=Mind|volume=97|number=386|year=1988|pages=238–251|doi=10.1093/mind/XCVII.386.238 |jstor=2255168}}</ref> This implies one has access to, and direct [[Self-knowledge (psychology)|self-knowledge]] of, their own thoughts in such a way that others do not.<ref>{{cite SEP|last=Gertler|first=Brie|title=Self-Knowledge|edition=Spring 2020|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|url-id=self-knowledge}}</ref> The concept can also refer to the notion of having privileged, non-[[perspectivism|perspectival]] access to knowledge of things about [[reality]] or things beyond one's own [[mind]].<ref>See for example: {{cite journal|last=Appel|first=Fredrick|title=The Objective Viewpoint: A Nietzschean Account|journal=History of Philosophy Quarterly|volume=13|number=4|year=1996|pages=483–502|jstor=27744724}}</ref> Epistemic privilege can be characterized in two ways:

* ''Positive characterization'': privileged access comes through [[introspection]].
* ''Negative characterization'': [[knowledge]] derived from privileged access is not based upon [[evidence]]s.

==Analysis==
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2018}}
The still prevailing traditional position argues each of us do in fact have privileged access to our own thoughts. [[Descartes]] is the paradigmatic proponent of such kind of view (even though "privileged access" is an anachronic label for his thesis):

{{Quote|While we thus reject all of which we can entertain the smallest doubt, and even imagine that it is false, we easily indeed suppose that there is neither God, nor sky, nor bodies, and that we ourselves even have neither hands nor feet, nor, finally, a body; but we cannot in the same way suppose that we are not while we doubt of the truth of these things; for there is a repugnance in conceiving that what thinks does not exist at the very time when it thinks. Accordingly, the knowledge, I THINK, THEREFORE I AM, is the first and most certain that occurs to one who philosophizes orderly.<ref>Descartes, René. 1641, ''[[Principles of Philosophy]]'', Part I, VII [http://www.classicallibrary.org/descartes/principles/01.htm].</ref>}}

For Descartes, we still have privileged access even in the [[Cartesian doubt|doubt]] scenario. That is, for him we would retain [[Self-knowledge (psychology)|self-knowledge]] even in those extreme situations in which we can not have knowledge about anything else.

[[Gilbert Ryle]], on the other hand, maintains a diametrically opposed view. According to the [[behaviorism]] of Ryle, each of us knows our own thoughts in the same way we know other's thoughts. We only come to know the thoughts of others through their linguistic and bodily behaviors, and must do exactly the same in order to know our own thoughts. There is no privileged access. We only have access to what we think upon [[evidence]]s supplied through our own actions.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

* [[Donald Davidson (philosopher)|Donald Davidson]], 1987, [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3131782 ''Knowing one's own mind'']
* Descartes, René, 1641 (Latin) and 1647 (revised translation to French), ''[[Meditations on First Philosophy]]''
* Descartes, René 1641, ''[[Principles of Philosophy]]''[http://www.classicallibrary.org/descartes/principles/]
* Gilbert Ryle, 1966, "Self-Knowledge"
* [[Joseph Agassi]], "Privileged Access", Inquiry, 12, 1969, 420–6. Reprinted in his ''Science in Flux'', Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 28, pp.&nbsp;120–6.

{{Philosophy of mind}}
{{Epistemology}}
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[[Category:Cognition]]
[[Category:Conceptions of self]]
[[Category:Concepts in epistemology]]
[[Category:Concepts in the philosophy of mind]]
[[Category:Doubt]]
[[Category:Knowledge]]
[[Category:Theory of mind]]
[[Category:René Descartes]]
[[Category:Subjective experience]]


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