PhilosophyLesson 1 of 1 in the course Epistemology

JTB, Gettier Cases, and Proposed Conditions for Knowledge

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 4 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

This lesson introduces Plato’s traditional account of knowledge and explains why its three conditions—truth, belief, and justification—initially seem compelling.

Knowledge matters because it is a goal of inquiry and has a special status in thought. Asking what it means to know something also draws attention to related ideas, especially justification: the reasons or grounds a person has for accepting a claim.

All flashcards

JTB account
The view that knowing a proposition requires that it be true, believed, and justified.
Gettier case
A case in which someone appears to have a justified true belief but not knowledge.
No false lemmas condition
The requirement that a person not infer a belief from any false premises or reasoning steps.
Defeater
Evidence that, if known or possessed, would undermine a person's justification for a belief.
Sufficient conditions
Conditions that, when met, guarantee that the thing being analyzed is present.

Quiz questions

  1. What do Gettier cases challenge about the JTB account?Answer: That justified true belief is sufficient for knowledge
  2. What additional condition did Gilbert Harman propose?Answer: A person must not infer the belief from falsehoods
  3. Why does Henry's belief in fake barn country seem lucky even without a false premise?Answer: Many nearby facades could have led him to mistake a fake for a real barn
  4. Who proposed adding a no-defeaters condition to JTB?Answer: Keith Lehrer and Thomas Paxson Jr.
  5. What key problem remains for the no-defeaters proposal?Answer: It needs a principled way to identify which evidence counts as a defeater

Based on Introduction to Philosophy by Nathan Smith (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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