Epistemology - tripartite view of knowledge Flashcards
what is the tripartite definition of knowledge?
S knows P if and only if P is true, S believes P, S has justification in believing P. a justified true belief
where is the tripartite definition derived from?
Plato’s dialogue Theaetetus
who used the phrase ‘everything that is the case’ to refer to reality?
Wittgenstein
what was the initial Gettier Case?
Smith and Jones are waiting for a job interview. Smith has a justified belief that Jones will get the job because the president of the company assures him of that. Smith then sees that Jones has 10 coins in his pocket and so proposes “the person who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket”. However, it then turns out that Smith gets the job and that smith happened to have 10 coins in his pocket. The proposition Smith formulated was true, he believed it and had justification for it. though it was only through luck. a case of a justified true belief that cannot be called knowledge.
what is the brown in barcelona Gettier case?
Smith has the justified belief ‘Jones owns a Ford (car)’ from which he justifiably, through disjunction introduction, concludes that “Jones owns a Ford, or Brown is in Barcelona.”
Smith has justification for believing F is true (that Jones owns a Ford). This is because the whole proposition is true even if only F is true. “F or B” is true even if only F is true. So even if we only have a justified belief in F, we still have a justified belief in “F or B”.
So, Smith thinks “Jones owns a Ford, or Brown is in Barcelona.” If, in fact, Jones does not own a Ford but due to luck Brown really is in Barcelona, then Smith had true justified belief.
what is the Infalibilist response to Gettier problems?
knowledge must be certain before it can be called knowledge. there must be no possibility of failure within the justification
infalibilism strengthens the justification of JTB knowledge
what is the no false lemmas response to gettier problems?
fourth criteria to JTB: S has not inferred their belief in p from any false lemmas
it requires that we analyse the process involved in coming to believe a proposition
the false belief Smith has about the job is not knowledge as it is a false lemma
JTBN
how does Zabzebski respond to the no false lemmas theory?
proposing a gettier case in which there is epistemic luck but no false lemmas
Dr Jones has very good inductive evidence (symptoms and lab test) that their patient Smith has virus X. This provides justification on the basis of which Dr Jones forms the belief ‘Smith has virus X’. However, Smith’s symptoms and the lab results are due to an unknown virus Y. But, due to luck, after the lab tests were taken but before Dr Jones formed her justified belief, Smith caught virus X. This means that Dr Jones’ justified belief is true.
who created no false lemmas?
Gilbert Harman
what is Sosa’s reliabilist response to the problem of Gettier cases?
S knows P if and only if
P is true
S believes p
S believes p because of the exercise of intellectual virtue
You have knowledge if you have truth, belief and the belief resulted from intellectual virtues
what is Sosa’s archer analogy?
Accuracy. An arrow accurately hitting a target is similar to a true belief. This is not enough to be knowledge because accuracy can result from luck, as Gettier shows.
Adroitness. An arrow shot adroitly (skilfully) is analogous to having intellectual virtues. However, even if the arrow was shot well and was accurate – even if someone has intellectual virtues and a true belief, that still does not rule out luck. For example, the arrow could even be shot well, be blown off course, and then blown back onto course.
Aptness. An arrow accurately hitting a target because it was shot well (adroitly) is analogous to having a true belief because of intellectual virtue. This is called aptness. There must be a causal relationship between accuracy and adroitness to truly rule out the possibility of luck. If a person has a true belief because of their intellectual virtue, then they do not have it because of luck.
how Do Gettier cases respond to VTB?
Barney in barn county
Henry is driving through Barn County, a countryside where there is one real barn and many fake barns that look real when viewed from the road. Whenever viewing a barn Henry thinks “there’s a barn”. Most of the time his beliefs are false but in the one case of the real barn his belief is true.
The problem is that in barn county this belief would be false most of the time. It was only luck that it was true in that one instance.
In the barn county scenario, Henry gains a true belief because of intellectual virtue. However, it was only luck that the exercise of intellectual virtue caused a true belief in that situation.
