Skepticism/The Gettier Problem Flashcards
What is philosophical skepticism?
It’s the view that none or all knowledge is impossible.
What does a global skeptic reject?
They reject the possibility of knowledge in general but doesn’t reject the possibility of all knowledge.
What does a local skeptic do?
They question the possibility of knowledge in particular areas of study like moral or scientific knowledge.
What is the dream argument?
It’s the argument that for all we know we could be dreaming while thinking we are awake.
What is Putnam’s Brain in a Vat?
It is the argument where a scenario stipulates that your experience will seem exactly the same whether you are a brain in a vat or not. Think about being trapped in the matrix.
What is the general structure of global skeptical arguments?
1) If I cannot rule out the possibility of SH, then I cannot be justified in believing that P.
2) I cannot rule out the possibility of SH.
3) Therefore, I cannot be justified in believing that P.
What is SH? What is P?
Skeptical hypothesis and proposition about the external world.
What is the Gettier problem?
Justified true belief can still involve luck and thus fall short of knowledge.
What is a Gettier case?
A case in which a thinker meets all three of the traditional JTB (justified true belief) conditions of propositional knowledge, but seems to not have propositional knowledge.
What are the ways of responding to the Gettier problem. (Response 1)
Reject: simply insisting that Gettier cases are cases of knowledge and that our intuitions to the contrary are mistaken or insisting that the beliefs in these cases aren’t actually justified.
What are the ways of responding to the Gettier problem? Response 2
Bracket: acknowledge that the Gettier cases are unexplained in our analysis, but indicate that competing analyses are no better off in dealing with the Gettier problem.
What are the ways of responding to the Gettier problem? Response 3
Solve: adjust or replace the JTB account to explain Gettier cases.
What is the No-False-Belief Condition?
Along with the conditions of justification, truth and belief, there is a fourth: no false beliefs be essentially involved in the reasoning that led to the belief.
Unfortunately this still doesn’t suffice
What is the No-Defeaters Condition?
A belief must be true and justified, and there must not be any defeaters to the justification of that belief.
PC (Is it true or false that the idea that justification is insufficient for knowledge is a global skeptic view?)
It’s false, the idea that justification for knowledge isn’t a global skeptic view.
