ABSTRACT
This chapter systematizes the contextualist analogy to gradable adjectives, presents Stanley's argument against the analogy, and offers contextualist response that abandons the analogy in favor of modeling the semantics of 'knows p' along the lines of quantifier expressions. It presents John Hawthorne's objection to the views presented, and outlines an argument to the effect that 'knows p' is an automatic indexical and as such to be expected to function differently from many other indexicals that the term has been compared to in the literature. The chapter describes the clarification technique objection by drawing attention to the fact that 'knows p' is most likely – and in any case according to Presuppositional Epistemic Contextualism – an automatic indexical and that no automatic indexicals can be modified in ways that are exploited by clarification technique objection. With respect to the syntax of 'knowledge'-ascriptions, one can admit that 'knows p' differs significantly from gradable adjectives without risking the credibility of Epistemic contextualism (EC).
