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Transcript

How would this philosopher explain James Joyce’s “Araby”?

Sources

Biographical background of philosopher

Edmund L. Gettier is an American author as well as a philosopher who was born in 1927. He was educated at Cornell University. He is best known for his contribution to epistemology. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. It is the investigation of what differentiates justified belief from opinion. When Gettier got a job as a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, his colleges urged him to write up anything since the administration was unhappy with his lack of publications. This lead to Gettier writing his small yet groundbreaking article, “Is Justified Belief True Knowledge?”

Gettier’s theory is that justified true belief is not knowledge. The boy has justified true belief but not knowledge because he thinks that the girl is giving him signs that she likes him while in reality she is just being friendly by talking to him about the market. Gettier would say that this story proves his theory because although the boy has justified true belief that the girl has interest in him, it is not a love interest, but a friendly interest, therefore, the boy is not wrong in saying the girl is interested in him, but not in the way he had justified true belief of. On the other hand, when the boy reaches the market, Gettier would say that the boy does not have justified true belief, he now has adequate evidence, therefore, he has knowledge. The adequate evidence refers back to situation (b) of Plato’s argument.

Works Cited

Hetherington, Stephen. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy . 16 March 2005. 7 September 2016 <http://www.iep.utm.edu/gettier/>.

Ichikawa, Jonathan Jenkins. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . 6 Feb 2001. 7 September 2016 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/ >.

Kleiman, Lowel and Stephen Lewis . Philosophy An Introduction Through Litrature. St. Paul: Paragon House, 1992.

Spot. 4 January 2014. 9 September 2016 <http://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/Phil100/jtb.html >.

Edmund L. Gettier

Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?

Summary of Major Concepts

By Meghana Menta and RJ Marayla

Complications to the philosopher’s major concept.

For point 1, an example is of something we discussed in class. When we discussed the Coriolis Effect in class and people found reputable science Youtubers that discussed why it was real, even though we previously learned it was false, people had justified true belief in those Youtubers although their information was false, so, people believed a proposition that was untrue.

There are 3 different responses to Gettier's theory.

Affirmations of the Justified True Belief

Justification Replacement Response

The theory of Justified True Belief is correct on the account of knowledge but the Gettier cases are rejected. The cases are rejected because Gettier cases involve insufficient levels of justification. Knowledge should require higher levels of justification than the Gettier cases.

The theory of the Gettier cases are correct. However, instead of adding a fourth condition, Justification is replaced for some other third condition (?TB) that will make the counterexamples obsolete.

Gettier’s argument in “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” is that Plato is wrong in saying justified true belief is knowledge in all situations. The argument of “Knowledge as Justified True Belief” states 3 cases, the first case is the basis of Gettier’s argument:

(a) S knows that P IFF (i) P is true,

(ii) S believes that P, and

(iii) S is justified in believing that P. (Gettier 1)

For this case Gettier notes 2 points: for the first point he says that “...it is possible for a person to be justified in believing a proposition that is in fact false” (Gettier 1); for the second point he says that for a proposition, P, and that proposition entails something, Q, if someone is justified in believing P, they are also justified in believing Q (Gettier 1). Also, Gettier states that “The same argument will show that (b) and (c) fail if ‘has adequate evidence for’ or ‘has the right to be sure that’ is substituted for ‘is justified in believing that’ throughout” (Gettier 1) so cases 2 and 3 will be omitted.

For point 2, a man is driving on the road and sees, in his peripheral vision, that there is a sheep in the field next to him when in fact it is just a sheepdog. Unknown to the man is that in that same field, there is a hill and behind that hill is a sheep. Therefore, the man was not wrong in saying that there is a sheep in the field, but, the dog he saw in the field was not the sheep; in this way, the man was correct, but, not by his justified true belief.

Fourth Condition Response

The theory of Justified True Belief is correct on the account of Gettier cases but the Justified True Belief is not necessary for knowledge. The theory is not complete without containing some fourth condition (JTB + ?). With a fourth condition, the Gettier counterexamples won't work and there is an adequate set of criteria that is necessary and sufficient for knowledge.

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