True Belief Theory

Improved Essays
Determining what the true definition of knowledge is has been a topic of debate among philosophers for centuries. Establishing the difference between knowledge and opinion is no easy task, and many theories dealing with this issue have arose over the years. Today, the most widely recognized theory for quantifying knowledge is the justified true belief theory, based on three conditions that each need to be satisfied for one to be considered to have knowledge. While this theory holds true in a great deal of cases, there are counter examples in Gettier cases that show the justified true belief theory to not always hold strong.
The justified true belief theory of knowledge is an attempt to provide a set of necessary and sufficient conditions
…show more content…
Even though this model is widely accepted as the working model of knowledge, there are instances where this theory is false. There are times when one can come to believe something that is true from beliefs that are false. Called Gettier cases, these are instances in which a person does have a justified true belief, but in which there is no knowledge. An example of a Gettier case might be as follows: A roommate moving into a new house might want to bring their cat. One of the roommates already living there, roommate A, claims to be allergic to cats, showing the new roommate doctors notes, allergy medicine, and epinephrine pens. The new roommate comes to believe that roommate A is allergic to cats, so someone already living in the house is allergic to cats. However, roommate A isn’t allergic to cats, but another roommate already living in the house, roommate B, is allergic to cats. The new roommate came to the correct conclusion that someone in the house was allergic to cats using the justified yet untrue belief that roommate A was allergic to cats. As well as being based off of an untrue justified belief, Gettier cases must also be fallible. Although the justification provides sound support for the truth of the belief in question, the support is not entirely perfect and leaves room for the possibility that the belief may actually be false. While the new roommate was entirely justified in believing that roommate A was indeed allergic to cats, the evidence provided did not rule out all other possibilities, so there was still a chance that the belief was false. However, the new roommate was able to arrive at the correct justified true belief that someone in the house is allergic to cats based upon the untrue justified belief that roommate A was the one allergic to

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

    Justifying belief and what is knowledge’s nature and scope is well defined by the philosophical stance of “naturalized epistemology” in that knowledge comes from the empirical sciences though it’s application of theory, methods and results. Knowledge comes from proving things. This is different from the classical foundationalism which asserts the need to basic belief from which other beliefs can be built on. This essay will discuss the distinctiveness of naturalized epistemology, then how it differs from classical foundationalism and conclude with why it is referable. It should be noted that both systems of knowledge have many variations and so this short essay is more a general discussion.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Said knowledge has the right to be sure. These cases are based of the individual perception, their entire case is based on their ability to provide proof of their proposition. Their proposition can be anything from a memory to something that they perceived. Ayer acknowledges that it is hard to possess such a proof of these types of proposition. He advises that the individual states general ideas, they also need to have evidence backing their proposition, in this case memories, testimony, or other forms of evidence is reliable (Ayer, p. 32).…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Evidence 2b 1. Explain the evidence 2. Tie it back to the claim…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Clifford and James are two philosophers who have contradicting opinions on whether having sufficient evidence is always necessary to believe in something. Where Clifford believes you cannot believe in anything without sufficient evidence, James believes that if the evidence doesn’t point in one way or another, it is justified to believe something based on our will. I will be arguing that James’ side is indeed correct. In James’ paper, he provides concrete evidence as to why his opinion is correct.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cole Luberda PHIL 1100 04 December 12th Throughout the course of this paper, the topic of skepticism will be discussed in multiple ways. First skepticism will be introduced in John Pollock’s short article A Brain in a Vat. Then the difference between ordinary incredulity and general philosophical skepticism will be discussed. Finally, the various general philosophical skepticism will be analyzed and opinions of arguments will be discussed.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although one 's identity may seem to be a very personal and individual decision, as we shall examine, there can be many historical, socioeconomic, and sociological factors that can directly or indirectly influence this decision. Just as there is a wide range of experiences and circumstances within the Asian American population, so too can there be many different, overlapping, and simultaneous forms of ethnic identity among Asian Americans. One common example is the ethnic identity of Japanese American after World War II. Many Japanese American adults who were imprisoned during WWII initially discarded their identity after the end of war, to avoid any association, shame, or embarrassment with being imprisoned. However, after movement to demand…

    • 1199 Words
    • 5 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

    However, with an example like this, this is why moral realism makes the most sense. After researching moral realism and moral relativism further they are both standpoints in which I understand and was able to grasp a fundamental understanding of the two. Moral realism is judgments based on factual information and is basically true or false. Moral relativism is basically a claim and…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The ontological argument is different than the cosmological or teleological arguments as it relies on A Priori knowledge rather than A Posteriori. A Priori knowledge is knowledge that you can know prior to any experience; it is known through reason alone. This essay will explore how reliable the ontological argument is. The ontological argument is an argument for the existence of god by St Anselm (1033-1109). Anselm defined god as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the essay entitled "The Unfamiliar Truth: Three Recent Books of Fiction" Joshua Harmon discusses Baxter's technique of defamiliarization. The author explains this technique as presenting familiar situation or things and putting a unique twist to them. The reason for this technique is to enhance the reader’s perception through the duration of the story. Moreover, Harmon points out that Baxter provides moderate changes when developing his characters with the usage of defamiliarization so people can focus on the familiar aspects of the characters and not be put-off by how unrealistic the character is. In addition, Harmon explores the characteristics of defamiliarization as developing familiar reading material by presenting common things and also foreign by the unfamiliar characteristics applied.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the last Chapter, Rachels discusses the creation of a "Satisfactory Moral Theory”, in this paper I will discuss my own creation of the Satisfactory Moral Theory. The moral theories are supposed to help us decide what are the right and wrong actions, but, not all the moral theories are perfect. We may feel that a certain conclusion to a problem is fair or unfair, but what theory do we use to make judgments?. I will start with the cultural relativism theory, to understand different cultures, There is a need to know that one community’s beliefs and practices are not usually the same as the other community. In fact, cultural relativism seems the most applicable approach to be taken on for communications purposes.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Correspondence Theory Over the last century, the world has become a place of everlasting technological advancement. The yearn for knowledge and advancements in academics has brought about an magnificent change in the world. Societies across the globe are rapidly changing and evolving due to new discoveries in the fields of knowledge, but many may ask the question: How can this knowledge be trusted? How is knowledge justified?…

    • 1020 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Coherentism

    • 1453 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Is coherentism about justification plausible? When it comes to the acquisition of a true belief leading to knowledge, it is thought that these beliefs should be justified. Coherentism is a form of internal, non-linear justification which holds the idea that for a belief to be justified in any way it must cohere with a current system of beliefs. BonJour wrote that 'what justifies beliefs is the way they fit together' , in essence, for beliefs to be justified they must metaphorically form a lattice like structure, where they each support each other, creating a non-linear structure of justification. Coherentism is mostly considered as an internal form of justification as this process of reflection on our current beliefs to accommodate new ones is an internal, mental process, as opposed to those external theories of justification such as foundationalism which rely on empirical and perceptual data forming core beliefs together being the source of justification.…

    • 1453 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Plato's View Of Relativism

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Instead, Person A would be justified in believing that the animal was a sheep relative to her epistemic system or principles of belief that are accepted by Person A and her community. At the same time, there exist mutually incompatible epistemic systems since Person B’s principles of belief that justify Person B in believing that the animal was a dog mean that regardless of what the animal actually is, Persons A and B could both reasonably arrive at different…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics