Practical Modes of Presentation. Some Remarks on the Intellectualism vs. Anti-Intellectualism Debate
Practical Modes of Presentation. Some Remarks on the Intellectualism vs. Anti-Intellectualism Debate

Summary/Abstract: This paper is a critical examination of the notion of practical mode of presentation and of related notions that have been proposed in the literature as a way to explain the propositional character of practical knowledge. If all knowledge is propositional, as intellectualists maintain, then we need an elucidation of the situations where the subject knows some true propositions about an activity without knowing how to perform that activity. Intellectualists have appealed to practical modes of presentation in order to reply to this objection and account for the apparent difference between ordinary (propositional) knowledge and the knowledge that is manifested in practical cases. While this difference is undeniable, it is not substantial according to the intellectualists. The paper proceeds as a discussion of the debate between intellectualists and their critics regarding practical modes of presentation. The controversial character of practical modes of presentation is a key issue for understanding the entire intellectualism vs. anti-intellectualism debate and, more generally, the competing accounts allow a deeper and more nuanced construal of the connection(s) between knowledge and action. The main aim of the critical discussion in this paper is rather modest, but still significant at this point of the debate: as I will show, the debate is far from over and – for all the ingenuity and complexity of extant intellectualist accounts – supplementary work needs to be done to clarify the distinctions and develop a convincing and comprehensive account of practical modes of presentation.

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