Weak Acquaintance Exists

Abstract This chapter argues that “weak acquaintance” exists. One is weakly acquainted with something just in case one is consciously aware of it and one’s conscious awareness of it is not mediated by awareness of any other thing. The author argues that if weak acquaintance does not exist, then whenever one is aware of anything, one is aware of infinitely many things. Since no one is aware of infinitely many things—not ever, let alone every time one is aware of anything—it follows that weak acquaintance exists. After defending his argument, the author considers two challenges: one based on a perceived tension between the existence of weak acquaintance and non-relational theories of experience, and another based on a concern that weak acquaintance is a trivial notion. He argues that the tension with non-relational theories doesn’t exist, and that weak acquaintance is far from trivial.