Justified True Knowledge

Improved Essays
What do we know? Philosophers, for many years, have try to define what "knowledge" is or how can someone be sure to know something. After many discussions, they have come up with a concept where in order for someone to know something, three components must be present at all times, but also have enough support when standing individually. This theory is known as the JTB Theory or Justified True Belief Theory. This concept has been challenged by Edmund Gettier's paper in 1963: ''Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? In this paper, he provides two examples where he claims that a justified true belief does not guarantee that someone knows something. Based on his most popular example "Smith and Jones getting a job'', I do agree with his position

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In William James', “The Will to Believe, James provides a defensive response to religious faith regarding W. T. Clifford's position in his essay, "The Ethics of Belief" (James, 2001). Within his stance, James suggests that his views have a somewhat broader scope that Clifford’s (Princeton University, n.d.). Moreover, that in certain cases, it is not only permissible but inevitable that a person’s passional, non-rational nature will determine that person’s belief (Princeton University, n.d.). In summary, James presents that anything that is proposed for our belief is a hypothesis and that any question about which of the two hypotheses to accept is a person’s option (Princeton University, n.d.).…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Naturalized epistemology has its basis in practicality and although it is not “truths” it is based on the accuracy of empirical knowledge that allows all organisms (thereby also including humans) to complete the current task. It becomes obvious that perfect truth is wasteful of time and resources, and dangerous as in the classic case of not avoiding a bush that might have a tiger until one is sure. Epistemology although coined by James Frederick Ferrier is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and Justified belief. So it is the practicality that this form of knowledge that is gathered both…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The ancient definition knowledge is clear a true justified belief. In that definition it seems that justification is a big part of knowing something and it makes sense. When something is true it shouldn’t contradict itself and it should have some justification right? G.E Moore says he certainly knows that the earth existed before he was born, but doesn’t really justify it. Thinking about this statement it is something that most people see as obvious.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Traceel Andrews Paper # 3 Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? – Edmund Gettier Gettier paper argued that for a thought to be considered justified there needs to be a necessary condition and that a third condition needs to be introduced for S to believe namely Q. Gettier talks about three other philosophers ideals and states that their ideas are wrong. Plato’s Theaetetus and Meno In Theaetetus, Plato through Socrates fumble with what knowledge is.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Introduction Achieving the idealistic society only happens when three necessities are made. These three necessities are the fundamentals to establishing the idealistic society. These fundamentals being that one becomes knowledgeable, trusting, and loyal to all that pertains to the ruler and the ruler’s laws. When one accepts knowledge as true, this person gains trust towards the one speaking truth. Gained trust creates a bond of devotion between the one speaking the truth and the one believing.…

    • 1480 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Gettier problem, in the field of epistemology, is a landmark philosophical problem with our understanding of knowledge. Attributed to American philosopher Edmund Gettier, The Gettier Problem challenged the long-held notion that justified true belief was knowledge. In the account of JTB, to have a proposition show knowledge one must have met all 3 conditions (Justification, truth, and belief). The Gettier Problem challenged this with two counter examples showing that some have justified true belief and do not know it, proving the JTB argument to be inadequate. Some have rejected these “Gettier Cases” while some have sought to transition from JTB to the Gettier Problem outlook.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In other words what if we confused opinion with knowledge. One example of this is in the past when the church claimed that the Earth was the center of the universe. This geocentric theory was accepted as knowledge because an authority had justified it. Galileo knew that this geocentric model was not true and thus to him, this knowledge was false. However to the general population, Galileo’s theory was heresy and was simply an unjustified belief even though it was in fact true.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    No Defeater's Theory

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The view is the most plausible of the fellow well-known theories in epistemic justification. The theory asserts that a person’s belief constitutes knowledge if the belief is true, justified, and has no defeaters. A defeater is defined as a belief that is incompatible with another belief. In the Smith and Jones case, the defeater is Smith being told that Jones will land the job, the belief that the recipient of the job has ten coins in his pocket stems from that information and is not compatible with how Smith derives his final conclusion. Hence, Smith’s argument will not constitute as epistemic knowledge.…

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    ❖ Question 6.2 Present the first worry about the popular version of evidentialism, and discuss a possible reply to it. The first worry about the popular version of evidentialism states that (conclude from the ‘Headstrong Physicist’ example), in the case that one is willingly rejecting to accept positively additional evidence that may or may not alter his/her justification on the proposition supported by his/her evidences, then evidentialism sounds wrong. Popular version of evidentialism says that “One is justified in believing a proposition p iff: the evidence one has supports p (to a sufficiently high degree)”. So, what if (in response to the case of the ‘Headstrong Physicist’), the physicist’s evidences have sufficiently high degree of belief.…

    • 2188 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two of the most intriguing schools of philosophy are the two which deal specifically with epistemology, or, what is better known as the origin of knowledge. Although they are not completely opposite of one another, they are argued in depth by two of the most famous philosophers in history. The origins of study in rationalism and empiricism can be found in the 17th century, during a time when various significant developments were made in the fields of astronomy and mechanics. These advancements undoubtedly led to the questions that probed the sudden philosophical argument: What do we truly know? Many people throughout history began to question whether science was really providing them with the true knowledge of reality.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Importance Of Knowledge

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited

    How do we come to a conclusion about what knowledge is accepted and what is discarded, then? If enough people believe something, does it become knowledge? It certainly seems to behave that way in…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    We rely on testimony, logic/reason, and empiricism which all do not ensure your knowledge 100 %. For instance, atheism is the disbelief or denial of God. An atheist is shown through science, such as the big bang theory, that the world was not created by God. This is testimony because the individual did not actually experience the big bang theory, they still take it as knowledge. But in fact, this is may not be the truth.…

    • 1376 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gettier approaches knowledge as a personal view of knowledge a knowledge that through justified true beliefs one cannot have knowledge of something due to limitations of the self-obtained knowledge. Zagzebski says that these limitations are inescapable when talking about knowledge formed from justified true beliefs as most knowledge is obtained through luck that one 's justified true belief fell upon through chance. I will argue that both of these models don 't view knowledge in a way that allows for deeper meaning or extrapolated interpretation to be able to be used in the real world as a means defining knowledge. I will focus on the Brown owns a Ford or is in Barcelona, thought experiment; to explore knowledge and its relations to justified…

    • 1520 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Is it similar to truth, and can it be justified through mathematics, history or the natural sciences? Is it possible to acquire through ways of knowing, such as memory or reason? There are many theories on whether objective knowledge can really exist. Sir Karl Popper's theory of objective knowledge talks about the problems of the social sciences and the humanities. It also provides a new…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Empirical Knowledge

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Module 3 from NURS 1074: Question 1: Do I value one way of knowing more than another? Reflecting on the different approaches and patterns of knowing, the use of empirical knowledge is valued most in my nursing practice. Hood (2014), reports, “ Empirical knowing constitutes the science of nursing.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays