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What is knowledge?
#4
RE: What is knowledge?
(April 25, 2010 at 10:52 am)Tiberius Wrote: Relative knowledge, sure, but I think we were talking about absolute (or just knowledge as a general thing) knowledge here.

The "justified true belief" argument is fine for most forms of knowledge, but it has a flaws, as shown by Edmund Gettier:

Quote:Smith has applied for a job, but, it is claimed, has a justified belief that "Jones will get the job". He also has a justified belief that "Jones has 10 coins in his pocket". Smith therefore (justifiably) concludes (by the rule of the transitivity of identity) that "the man who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket".
In fact, Jones does not get the job. Instead, Smith does. However, as it happens, Smith (unknowingly and by sheer chance) also had 10 coins in his pocket. So his belief that "the man who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket" was justified and true. But it does not appear to be knowledge.
Yeah, the Gettier cases are interesting, but I've always found them a bit suspicious. E.g. in this example, how are Smith's initial beliefs justified? We're not told. Why should we conclude that JTB is not a sufficient set of criteria, rather than concluding that in fact Smith wasn't justified in believing that "Jones will get the job"? Perhaps Smith needed stronger criteria for holding a belief about a future contingent event.
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Messages In This Thread
What is knowledge? - by Logikos - April 25, 2010 at 7:51 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Violet - April 25, 2010 at 7:54 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Fluké - April 26, 2010 at 3:55 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Violet - April 26, 2010 at 6:03 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Fluké - April 26, 2010 at 6:19 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Tiberius - April 25, 2010 at 10:52 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Logikos - April 25, 2010 at 11:32 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Tiberius - April 25, 2010 at 11:50 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Violet - April 26, 2010 at 6:30 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Edwardo Piet - May 2, 2010 at 8:16 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Fluké - May 3, 2010 at 9:29 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Welsh cake - May 2, 2010 at 9:54 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by Edwardo Piet - May 4, 2010 at 7:38 am
RE: What is knowledge? - by ib.me.ub - May 7, 2010 at 10:57 am

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