Three Varieties of Authority

Abstract

Doubts about what can be known may hide what can be said. A focus on knowledge claims and norms that order them—first-, second-, and third-person authority—can replace epistemological projects of all stripes. Further, skeptical worries can be alleviated by attention to the way in which competent language users are secured from radical error by the intersubjective origin and refinement of our thought. Clinical examples, brief outlines of applications, and closer examination of two topics—the assertion of interpretive authority and therapeutic self-disclosure—illustrate some practical uses of these ideas.