Alex Byrne and Brie Gertler

Alex Byrne (left) and Brie Gertler (right) on self-knowledge of beliefs.

In this conversation, Byrne and Gertler closely examine Gareth Evans’s “transparency procedure” for gaining self-knowledge of beliefs. According to the transparency procedure, one determines whether one believes that p simply by considering whether p is true (rather than via direct access to one’s own beliefs). At first glance, the transparency procedure looks reliable. It also seems to capture ordinary thinking about one’s own beliefs. (For instance, the question “Do you believe that there will be a third world war?” typically prompts consideration of whether there will be a third world war.) However, the transparency procedure involves an invalid inference: from p, it does not follow that I believe that p. Given this, can the transparency procedure be a way to gain genuine self-knowledge?

Related works

by Byrne:

“Knowing That I am Thinking” (forthcoming)

“Knowing What I See” (forthcoming)

“Introspection” (forthcoming)

by Gertler:

Self-Knowledge (2010)

“Self-Knowledge and the Transparency of Belief” (forthcoming)

See also:

Gareth Evans, The Varieties of Reference (1982)