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(1997) Synthese 110 (3).
I argue that indirect quotation in the first person simple present tense (“self-quotation”) provides a class of infallible assertions. The defense of this conclusion examines the joint descriptive and constitutive functions of performative utterances and argues that a parallel treatment of belief ascription is in order. The parallel account yields a class of infallible belief ascriptions that makes no appeal to privileged modes of access. Confronting a dilemma formulated by Crispin Wright for theories of self-knowledge gives an epistemological setting for the account of infallible belief ascription.
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Jacobsen, R. (1997). Self-quotation and self-knowledge. Synthese 110 (3), pp. 419-445.
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