Cultural Manifest Knowledge Contributing to Deep Disagreement

Studies in Logic, Vol. 16, No. 3 (2023): 119–136       PII: 1674­3202(2023)­03­0119­18

Zhixi Chen               Jiangeng Ning

Abstract. Current research on causes of deep disagreement with respect to cultural constituents sees a tension between the collectivist indistinguishability and the highly individualist idiosyncrasy of cultural knowledge. The tension in its settlement calls for a new way, which takes both epistemic statuses of culture into consideration. This paper answers this call and attempts to build a new way by drawing insights from post­Gricean Relevance Theory. It argues that, in looking for the cultural factors that contribute to deep disagreement, we should neither merely look to the cultural knowledge indistinguishably held by the speech participants, nor restrict our attention to the idiosyncratic knowledge of each individual. Rather, we ought to take stock of cultural manifest knowledge, in the statuses of cultural manifestness, which designates the cultural competence of individual participants.