The position that the standards for knowing
something shift depending on context. In a low-stakes everyday situation, "I know the car is
parked outside" might be justified by a quick glance. In a high-stakes legal context, the same claim requires more evidence. Contextualism explains why knowledge attributions vary: what counts as "knowing" depends on the conversational context, the stakes involved, and the alternatives that need to be ruled out. It's the epistemology of "that depends"—not about whether you know, but about what counts as knowing in this specific situation.
"In casual conversation, I know my
phone is on the table. But if
my life depended on it, Epistemological Contextualism says I'd need to
check twice. The knowledge is the same; the standard for 'knowing' changed with the context. Stop yelling at me for being 'unsure'—I'm just context-appropriate."