On Monday, 26 May 2025 at 16:15, Professor Emeritus of philosophy, Bengt Molander (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), will hold a colloquium. In his presentation, Molander will address alternative forms of knowledge that are often overlooked in standard epistemology. The colloquium is in English and takes place in Jakobi 2, room 336.
“Knowing Our Ways About – With and Without Language”
Summary
Standard epistemology is very much, too much, I will argue, focused on so-called propositional knowledge. My research interest and the topic of my talk are other forms of knowledge, "practical" forms of knowledge: "knowing how", "tacit knowledge", indeed all forms of knowledge in the form of human beings involved in various kinds of human practices. I will present the outlines of a fairly general approach to knowledge, which does not separate between "theoretical" and "practical" knowledge; though it sometimes can be useful to distinguish between theory and practice. A key formulation is knowing our ways about, with and without language.
I build mainly on ideas from American Pragmatism, in particular William James and John Dewey, and the late writings of Wittgenstein. Gilbert Ryle’s classical discussion of "knowing how" has also been important.
This colloquium is part of the Susimetsa Philosophicum Residency Programme, where the residents present the results of their research projects. The colloquium is organised by the Department of Philosophy and the Centre for Ethics of the University of Tartu. The colloquium is supported by the NGO Prof. Dr. Theda Rehbock's Susimetsa Philosophicum.
