tripartite view

essence

essence

something that makes something what it is

types of knowledge

practical, knowledge by acquaintance, propositional

practical knowledge

knowing how

knowledge by acquaintance

knowing of something through somebody else

propositional knowledge

knowing that something is the case (factual)

tripartite of knowledge

knowledge is considered true if it is a justified, true belief

zagzebski’s pitfalls for defining

circular, obscure, negative, ad hoc(specific)

real essence

a real cause that makes something the way that it is

zagzebski’s view on knowledge

• unsure if it has a real essence as term varies historically

• knowledge should be treated like it has a real essence so a real definition should be found

proposition

what a statement says about the world

belief

a thought about the world

fact

something that is the case about the world

sufficient conditions

• not all conditions have to be met for statement to be true

• will always have the thing despite other facts

necessary conditions

• thing is needed for statement to be true

Gettier cases

cases in which JTB doesn’t equate to knowledge e.g Smith and Jones

responses to issues with the tripartite view

• reliabilism

• no false lemmas

• virtue epistemology

• infallibalism

reliabilism

we should seek our knowledge through a reliable source

no false lemmas

if someone has strong justification for their belief but it was based on a false lemma and happens to be true, it is not knowledge

virtue epistemology

JTB is qualified as knowledge because the person holding it has intellectual virtue

infallibalism

the justification for a true belief is so strong that it cannot be rationally doubted

issues with tripartite view

• is belief necessary for knowledge?

• can you have knowledge without truth?

• can you have knowledge without evidence?

• are the JTB conditions jointly sufficient?

Smith and Jones case- Gettier

• Smith and Jones are interviewing for the same job

• Smith hears the interviewer say that Jones will get the job and notices that Jones has 10 gold coins in his pocket

• Smith forms the belief that the person who gets the job will have 10 gold coins in their pocket

• Smith ends up getting the job and realises that he also has 10 coins by coincidence

• Smith’s JTB didn’t equate to knowledge and he was correct by luck

Fake barn county case

• in “fake barn county” the locals make fake barns that look real

• Henry is driving through fake barn county unaware of this, and thinks “that’s a barn” when he sees one of the fake barns, in this case his belief isn’t knowledge

• on one occasion, Henry looks at the one real barn and thinks “that’s a barn”, so his JTB becomes knowledge