part one - what is knowledge Flashcards
three types of knowledge
acquaintance (knowing of)
ability (knowing how)
propositional (knowing that)
Acquaintance Knowledge
familiar with something, knowing someone
where a person has direct, unmediated and non-inferential access to what is known
example - I know the manager of the restaurant
Ability
Knowing How
possessing an ability to do something
example - I know how to correctly eat snails
Propositional
Knowing That
knowing a fact or a statement
example - I know that Paris is the capital of France
Tripartite Definition of Knowledge
A person knows a proposition/statement if and only if:
a. they believe it (belief condition)
b. it’s true (truth condition)
c. their belief is justified (justification condition)
Necessary Condition
x is necessary for y
if we have y we must have x
whether the presence of X guarantees the presence of Y
Sufficient Condition
x is sufficient for y
if we have x we must have y
whether the absence of x rules out the presence of y
Sufficiency Claim
TDK - if
if we have a JTB about something, we thereby know it
whether the presence of X guarantees the presence of Y
Necessity Claim
TDK - only if
if we know something, we must have a JTB about it
whether the absence of X rules out the presence of Y
Gettier - Attacking the Sufficiency Claim
two cases that tests whether whether the presence of JTB guarantees the presence of knowledge
case one - Smith and Jones
response - no false lemmas condition
Case two - twins case
responses - infallibilism, reliabilism and epistemic virutes
No Fase Lemmas Condition
adding another condition
a person knows something if and only if they have a JTB of the statement and that their belief wasn’t inferred from any falsehood
can’t claim to know a proposition if the belief of it had been inferred from false statements
Epistemic Virtues
strengthening the justification condition
excellent characteristics that are involved in our knowledge of the world
Sosa - virtues are the relatively stable features of the mind (memory and vision)
Zagbaski - virtues are like character traits (open-mindedness and inquisitiveness)
a person only posses knowledge if they form their true belief through the exercise of the virtues. In the Gettier case people end up with the true beliefs through luck not because of intellectual virtues.
Reliabilism
adding another condition
substituting the original condition for something else that eliminates the possibility of luck or coincidence. Done by stipulating that knowledge must be produced through the application of reliable cognitive process.
Infallibilism
strengthening the justification condition
refers to the impossibility of making mistakes
