Justified True Belief Flashcards
What is Justified True Belief? (JTB)
The conditions required to reach certain knowledge.
What are Gettier Cases?
These are real-world examples whereby someone has a belief that they are correct and it turns out to be true.
However they lack the justification component which validates the reason as to why they have such a belief.
What is Epistemic Luck?
When you accidentally reach knowledge without having adequate reasoning or evidence as to why you’re correct.
Outline the Smith and Jones Gettier Case.
Smith will hire whoever has ten coins in their pocket.
Smith has a strong belief that Jones has ten coins in his pocket.
Smith thinks Jones will get the job.
It turns out that Jones does have ten coins in his pocket, he therefore is hired.
This example begs the question whether Smith has knowledge but according to JTB he can’t have because he lacks a proper justification as to why he thinks Jones has ten coins in his pocket.
What can be used to strengthen the justification condition for knowledge?
- Reliabilism
Outline the logical formulation for JTB.
P1- Proposition P is true
P2- I believe that P is true
P3- I have a justification for P being true
C1- I have knowledge of P
Aside from Gettier, what are other problems with using JTB to reach knowledge?
- Sense data may allude us to the truth and make us believe we are correct when in fact we are inferring from a false belief.
- The strength of a justification is subjective and could be argued as to whether someone actually holds one that is sufficient enough to constitute knowledge.
What is Reliabilism? Give an example.
Having your belief formed from a reliable cognitive process.
P1- S believes that P
P2- P is true
C1- S’s belief of P was formed from a reliable cognitive process.
I have used the clock in my house every day to determine the time to be correct, and it has always been accurate. Using the clock is therefore reliable and my cognitive process of checking it is justified.
How does Reliabilism affect JTB?
It brings up the justification condition for knowledge, strengthening it and providing another reason as to why you’ve reached proper knowledge.
Giving another layer of evidence to your justification makes the utilisation of JTB more sound and a better method of knowledge acquisition.
What is No False Lemmas?
When your belief is not formed from a false justification.
P1- S believes that P
P2- P is true
C1- S didn’t infer their belief from a false justification
How does No False Lemmas affect JTB?
It strengthens the belief condition and provides a reason that excludes why your beliefs may be falsely formed.
This consequently prevents someone from arguing that belief isn’t strong because it could’ve stemmed from a malformed source
Give an example of No False Lemmas.
Someone may have statistical evidence for believing smoking to be dangerous. This is an example of No False Lemmas as their belief is supported and not falsely formed.
Oppositely, if somebody has simply spoken to one friend who had told them an anecdote that smoking is safe this isn’t No False Lemmas because this belief could easily be falsely formulated due to the ultimate lack of evidence.
