Understanding in conditions of neutrality: a closer look at its objects

Abstract

In her article titled ‘A portrait of understanding as a non-factive state’, Sjölin Wirling provides an engaging ‘portrait’ of a type of understanding—termed ‘non-factive objectual understanding’—that inquirers who have yet to settle certain questions concerning a target phenomenon can achieve under particular conditions. This paper investigates whether, in the situations Sjölin Wirling discusses, the relevant epistemic improvements really are improvements in our understanding of phenomena.