EPISTEMOLOGY

Knowledge
• Traditionally defined as justified true belief
• A subject S knows a proposition p if and only if
(1) S believes p, (2) p is true, and (3) S is
justified in believing p. (originally given in
Plato’s Theaetetus)
• The tripartite definition of knowledge
assumes that all three components-
justification, truth, and belief-are sufficient
and necessary conditions for knowledge.
 Justification
• Three principal explanations for holding what
constitutes as a good reason for holding a
belief: (1) foundationalism, (2) coherentism,
and (3) reliabilism
 Foundationalism
• Basic beliefs support
themselves and are not
inferred from other
beliefs
• Non basic beliefs are
beliefs supported by
other beliefs
• The pyramid model of
knowledge
 Criticism of foundationalism
• Regress argument
(1)Each belief relies on another belief for its
justification.
(2)Basic beliefs must be treated as an exception
and must in turn rely on a further set of
beliefs for their justification.
(3)The process of justification will go on ad
infinitum.
 Coherentism
• Sometimes referred to as
holism as it emphasizes
the consistency and
connectedness of our
beliefs.
• A belief coheres with a
general pattern if (1) it is
based on adequate
evidence and (2) it is not
disproved by one’s
current pattern of beliefs.
• The raft model of
knowledge
 Criticism of coherentism
• Argument from plurality: Coherentism does
not provide criteria that will allow us to
choose between two equally coherent but
incompatible systems.
 Reliabilism
• A belief is justified only if it is a product of a
reliable method
• Reliable methods include (1) testimony, (2)
memory, (3) perception, and (4) inference
 Criticism of reliabilism
• No method of justification is reliable at every
instance.
 Truth
• Intuitions about truth: norm of belief, end of
inquiry, objective
• Theories of truth: inflationary and deflationary
theories of truth
 Inflationary theories of truth
• CORRESPONDENCE • COHERENCE
• A statement is true if it • A statement is true so
states the way things long as it follows from a
are in reality and false set of beliefs and false
otherwise otherwise.
• Ex. There are students • Ex. A proposition is
inside the classroom. either true or false. No
third value is possible.
• A problem with the correspondence and
coherence theories of truth is that their
account of truth is not applicable to all types
of statements (scope problem).
– A triangle has three sides.
– Dowry murder is immoral.
– The leaf is green.
• Inflationary theories assume that truth has an
essence that can be discovered.
• Deflationary theories of truth assume that
truth has no essence.
 Deflationary theory of truth
• The predicate “is true” is used to make
generalizations on how we use the term
“true” across various discourses.
• Truth schema: p is true if and only if p
• A problem with most deflationary theories of
truth is that they cannot provide an
explanation for one of our most basic
intuitions about truth, its objectivity.
Edmund Gettier’s Objection to JTB
• American philosopher
known for refuting the
tripartite definition of
knowledge as JTB in “Is
Justified Belief
Knowledge?” (1963)
 First example
Q: Jones is the man who will get the job and
Jones has ten coins in his pocket.
P: The man who will get the job has 10 coins in
his pocket.

S has a justified false belief in q, S validly infers p

from q, and p happens to be true but S does not
know p.
• If S is justified in believing q, and S validly
infers p from q, then S is thereby justified in
believing p. (closure principle)
• Justification does not entail truth
 Recipe for Formulating Gettier
Counter-examples
• Derived from Linda Zagzebski’s original
formulation
(1)Make a case of justified false belief.
(2)Make sure that the falsity of the belief is
caused by bad luck.
(3)Add an element of good luck that makes the
belief true.
 Some Remarks on Epistemology
• The pursuits in epistemology are important
for they aim to help us to arrive at a better
understanding of how we arrive at knowledge
claims, claims that guide the various practices
in our society (e.g. daily practices which can
be as mundane as deciding the type of clothes
to wear, science etc.)