BA Year 1 Introduction to Epistemology Corine Besson

T2, Week 1, 10/01/2013

Knowledge, Justification and Belief

Toy examples (A) Alice believes that Hugo has arrived home. (B) Alice is justified in believing that Hugo has arrived home. (C) Alice knows that Hugo has arrived home. The connection to truth (D) Alice believes that Hugo has arrived home but Hugo hasnt arrived home. (E) Alice is justified in believing that Hugo has arrived home but Hugo hasnt arrived home. (F) Alice knows that Hugo has arrived home but Hugo hasnt arrived home. Intuitively, (D) can be true; (E) can be true but (F) cannot be true. Thus, intuitively, knowledge entails truth but belief and justification do not. You cant know false things but you can believe and justifiably so false things. Epistemologists say that what is distinctive about knowledge is that it is truth-entailing (if you know a proposition, that proposition is true) or factive (if you know a fact, that fact obtains). By contrast mere believe and mere justified belief are not factive: they are not intrinsically related to truth. Belief and knowledge (G) Alice believes that Hugo has arrived home but doesnt know that Hugo has arrived home. (H) Alice knows that Hugo has arrived home but doesnt believe that Hugo has arrived home. (G) can be true. For instance, as in (D), Alice can have a false belief that Hugo has arrived home; in which case she doesnt know he has arrived. Its unclear whether (H) can be true. It depends how you understand belief. Philosophers tend to use the term belief to refer to the attitude we have, roughly, whenever we take something to be the case or regard it as true or have an opinion about it. In some uses it can also mean being confident or having a strong conviction (e.g. as in having a lot of self-belief). Thus consider the following case. Nervous Schoolboy The nervous schoolboy is asked, What is the capital of France? The schoolboy knows that the answer is Paris. Hes been on holiday to France and even gone up the Eiffel Tower. Yet when put on the spot by an irascible teacher, all his confidence vanishes, and he cannot bring himself to give an answer. He just feels he doesnt know anything anymore, and wants to go home. If you associate belief with confidence, you may say that the schoolboy knows (deep inside) that Paris is the capital of France but he doesnt believe it. If belief is just about taking something to be the case, you might say that the schoolboy knows (deep inside) and believes (deep inside) that Paris is the capital of France but has lost all confidence. This will be our understanding of knowledge and belief: well take it that where there is knowledge there is also belief, and well regard (H) as not possible.

2 Belief and justification (I) Alice believes that Hugo has arrived home but is not justified in believing that Hugo has arrived home. (J) Alice is justified in believing that Hugo has arrived home but does not believe that Hugo has arrived home. (I) can be true; you can have a belief that is not justified. What does that mean? A justified belief has some positive support for it. Not all beliefs are like that, for instance beliefs that are the results of guesses or are formed randomly or irrationally. Is (J) true? On the face of it, (J) is ambiguous. If justified belief is a kind of belief, then you cant have a justified belief without having a belief. But you could think about the matter in a slightly different way. Location Alice has zero belief about Hugos whereabouts. She hasnt considered the matter. But suppose also that if she were to consider the matter there would be plenty of reasons for her to believe that he has arrived home. In this case perhaps (J) is true: there is justification nearby if she turns her attention to it. Thus you might want to distinguish between two readings of (J): (J1) Alice has a justified belief that Hugo has arrived home but does not believe that Hugo has arrived home. (J2) Alice has available to her a justification for believing that Hugo has arrived home but does not believe that Hugo has arrived home. (J1) doesnt seem possible; but (J2) does seem possible. It is standard in epistemology to take (J1) to be the intended understanding of (J), and unless specified, well do that. Knowledge and justification (K). Alice is justified in believing that Hugo has arrived home but she doesnt know that he has arrived home. (L) Alice knows that Hugo has arrived home but shes not justified in believing that he has arrived home. (K) can be true; suppose that Alice is justified but that her belief is false (as in (E)). It doesnt seem that (L) can be true. If Alice knows Hugo has arrived home, she believes it (see (H) again) and also it is true (see (F) again, knowledge is factive). If she could know it without being justified, then that could be the result of a guess or it could be formed randomly or even irrational (see again (I)). In this case irrational true beliefs could count as knowledge. So it seems that knowledge requires justification. The state of play A proposition is true when there is an objective fact of the matter that makes it true. Knowledge is factive, and it requires belief and justification. Justification has to do with having positive support for ones beliefs. Believing something is taking it to be the case or regarding it as true. Neither knowledge nor belief entail certainty or complete confidence. Belief is easier to achieve than both knowledge and justified belief. Justified belief is easier to achieve. Thus knowledge is the highest cognitive achievement: the best outcome of an inquiry for you as a rational agent is if you gain knowledge. If you have knowledge, youve latched onto something true in a rational way.