Work's Role in Learning How

Abstract

AbstractAn influential version of intellectualism about knowledge‐how holds that acquiring facts is necessary and sufficient for learning how to do things. I argue that such a view is incompatible with learning to do things through effort and practice, which suggests that intellectualists do not have a coherent way to explain the role of work in our acquisition of knowledge‐how. By way of an alternative, I argue that work serves to establish patterns of thinking that coordinate propositional truths with powers of action.