V.—Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description

Abstract

The object of the following, paper is to consider what it is that we know in cases wlhere we know propositions about "the so-and-so" without k-nowing who or what the so-and-so is. For example, I know that the candidate who grets miiost votes will be elected, tlhough I do not know who is the candidate who will get nmost votes. The problem I wish to consider is: What do we kniow in these cases, wlhere the subject is merely described ? I have considlered this problem elsewhere* fromis a purely logical point of view; but in what follows I wish to consider the question in relation to theory of knowledge as well as in relation to loaic, and in view of the above-meentioned logical discuLssioins, I shall in this paper ma;ke the logrical portion as brief as possible.