Epistemology - Tripartite K Flashcards
What is k=J+T+B?
S knows that p iff
1) s believes that p
2) p is true
3) s is justified in believing that p
What is BELIEF?
Necessary, but not sufficient for k.
A type of mental state that aims at the truth.
SUBJECTIVE CONDITION
What is TRUTH?
True belief is necessary as you can’t know something false.
OBJECTIVE CONDITION
What is JUSTIFICATION?
Accidentally true beliefs cannot be knowledge - a rational account (PLATO) must be provided.
NORMATIVE CONDITION
Is J a necessary condition for knowledge?
If true belief is not sufficient for k, that doesn’t mean that J is necessary for k - there may be another way that a TB can classify as k.
E.g, to be reliably informed on something without a rational account may be enough for me to talk about it as if it were k.
Is T a necessary condition for k?
-different meanings of what ‘truth’ actually is.
However, just a JB can be either true OR false; people can believing propositions that aren’t true.
THEREFORE, we can’t really KNOW what is false.
Not all beliefs are true - truth is ‘objective’ thus its relative
Is B a necessary condition for k?
Conscious vs unconscious belief.
Someone may know something without consciously believing it e.g, if they’re unconfident.
HOWEVER, we can say that their k is an unconscious justified true belief.
Gettier - are the conditions jointly sufficient?
- Deductive argument preserves justification
If you deduce q from p you are also justified in believing that q.
-Provides 2 counterexamples to the JTB.
-SMITH AND JONES (JOB) and SMITH AND JONES + BROWN (FORD)
I) smith has been told by the employer that jones is going to get the job. Smith also has excellent reason to believe that jones has 10 coins in his pocket (e.g, he counted them) - both of these beliefs are justified.
Smith ten deduces that the man who will get the job has ten coins in his pocket. This belief is justified as it is inferred deductively from justified beliefs.
It then turns out that smith get the job instead, however unknown to him, he happens to to also have 10 coins in his pocket - therefore his belief happens to be true - it was both true and justified, but we shouldn’t say that he KNEW that the man who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket as Smith inferred his belief from a false belief, that Jones would get the job.
It is LUCK.
II) Smith believes that Jones owns a ford e.g, has seen him drive one every day. So, his belief is justified. He then also deduces the belief that either Jones has a ford or Brown is in Barcelona. (DISJUNCTIION)
‘Either jones owns a ford or brown is in Barcelona’ is true if;
I) jones own a ford or
II) brown is in Barcelona or,
III) both 1 and 2 are true.
He deduces that brown is in Barcelona from his justified belief that jones owns a ford.
Unknown to Smith, Jones actually RENTS his ford and so doesn’t own it, but coincidentally Brown is in Barcelona; so the proposition ‘Either jones owns a ford or Brown is in Barcelona’ is true not because of Jones owns a ford but because brown is in Barcelona.
His belief is therefore true and justified, but we shouldn’t say that smith KNEW it.
His belief was inferred from a FALSE BELIEF, that jones owns a ford.
