ipl-logo

To What Extent Have Epistemologists Managed To Provide Sufficient Conditions For Propositional Knowledge

1375 Words6 Pages

Have epistemologists managed to provide the sufficient conditions for propositional knowledge?

Epistemologists study knowledge, in particular what makes something knowledge. In this essay I will be looking at several arguments for the sufficient conditions for propositional knowledge. I will assess each one to show that the only true argument for propositional knowledge is Infallibilism.

Perhaps the most simplistic argument for what makes knowledge is ‘JTB’ or the ‘Tripartite View of Knowledge’. This argues that you must have a justified, true belief to know something: you cannot know what is false, you cannot know a proposition which you do not believe to be true and a belief that is irrational or is not based the evidence is not knowledge.
At first glance this seems to make a lot of sense, it is the conclusion one would …show more content…

It consists of three conditions; S believes that P, P is true and S is certain the P. Certainty in this respect does not mean the feeling of certainty but the inability to be wrong. It is this strengthening of the justification condition from JTB that for me makes this the only theory that provides the sufficient conditions for knowledge. If you are certain you cannot be wrong and therefore there can be no Gettier-type problems that can counter it, it needs to alterations or tweaking. Some infallibilists argue that belief is not a necessary condition and Plato argues that belief and knowledge are in fact two different things. Belief or opinion (doxa) is to see something as, for example, beautiful while others may disagree so if something can be both beautiful and not beautiful then it is not knowledge, however, beauty in itself cannot not be beautiful, so the ‘form’ beauty is knowledge: we can have knowledge of the Forms, but not knowledge of particular objects of sense experience. We can take from this that belief has no place in the conditions for

Show More
Related
932 Words | 4 Pages

There is much belief to suggest that we can depend on our senses unless there is just cause or evidence suggested to question their reliability. Therefore, the belief of reality may be subjected to interpretation or skepticism, but without solid evidence to discard what we believe to be true, we should be confident in what we hold to be true. Skepticism or Justified True Belief

Read More
1880 Words | 8 Pages

Be that as it may, he immediately stresses his steadfast reluctance to accept this association, as he contends that naturalistic epistemology (or rather, moderate naturalistic epistemology) is indeed quite compatible with a priori knowledge and justification (Goldman 1). Goldman briefly reminds us of what two other stronger, yet quite different versions of naturalistic epistemology claim. On the one hand, scientific naturalism, he explains, holds that “[e]pistemology is a branch of science [where the] statements of epistemology are a subset of the statements of science, and the proper method of doing epistemology is the empirical method of science” (Goldman 2). On the other hand, empiricist naturalism claims that “All justification arises from empirical methods [and the] task of epistemology is to articulate and defend these methods in further detail” (Goldman 3).

Read More
548 Words | 3 Pages

Knowledge is the condition of knowing something. When given it does not decrease, but will only increase. It is collective thoughts and experiences people go through. Books are the greatest source of knowledge and help develop the human mind. Knowledge also helps people not commit the same mistakes again and again.

Read More
278 Words | 2 Pages

It is information that's adapted to a purpose to create emotion and meaning to the world. Knowledge should not be expected to be perfect. Knowledge is created by imaginative and critical thought. Knowledge for the future helps us think outside the box to be able to communicate logically with one another.

Read More
939 Words | 4 Pages

In Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, they define knowledge as “information, understanding, or skill that you get from experience or education.” I will be comparing and contrasting The Giver and Fahrenheit 451. These two pieces of text both emphasizes that without knowledge you are ignorant by using the lack or banning of books. In The Giver, Jonas (protagonist) leaves his perfect society to find a better world after receiving knowledge about memories and realises how ignorant his community is. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag (protagonist) sees how ignorant he has been this whole time not wondering about all the books he has been burning and rebels against his society.

Read More
1564 Words | 7 Pages

Throughout my 8th grade journey I have been forced to encounter many characters and only one upstander stands out to me as he possesses both the empathy and courage. While learning about this character I was struck with the lack of characters with empathy from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This is because it is the 1930s and we are in Maycomb,Alabama. Slavery has been forced to a halt in 1865, however the South refused to believe that they could be equal the black community. They created unfair laws, Jim Crow Laws, and treated the blacks like trash.

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

To start off one of the characteristics of human nature is belief. This

Read More
1680 Words | 7 Pages

Clifford argues that all beliefs must be justified. In his writing, The Ethics of Belief, Clifford states that “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe in anything upon insufficient evidence” (Clifford 5). Clifford means that it is morally wrong to believe something without sufficient evidence. This can be a problem when one examines the very definition of belief. A belief is a thought, which may have a foundation in reality, but does not require it.

Read More
614 Words | 3 Pages

However, paragraph three is antithetical and deviates from this argument: “Still, I believe

Read More
1261 Words | 6 Pages

In the 1963 philosophy paper titled “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”, Edmund Gettier attempts to deconstruct and disprove the philosophical argument that justified true belief is knowledge. Justified true belief, also commonly referred to as JTB, is used as a certain set of conditions that are used to explain someone s knowing some sort of proposition p. More specifically, JTB is used to say that s has knowledge of p if and only if p is true, s believes that p is true, and s is justified in believing that p is true. Gettier offers main points as the conclusion of his argument against this claim. First, he states that s can be justified in believing that p is true while p is actually false.

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

“It is always by favour of Nature that one knows something” -Wittgenstein (1975) Edmund Gettier questioned the accepted and existing notion of propositional knowledge which was defined as Justified True Belief (JTB). According to justified true belief, for a premise (p) can be considered knowledge (K), if and only if the individual has belief in the premise (Bp), believes the premise to be true (Tp) and is supported by justification (has enough evidence to believe that p is true (Jp). So, Kp↔ Bp +Tp + Jp Gettier, through the use of two cases, proves that the existence of justified true belief does not guarantee knowledge. In other words, that justified true belief is not a

Read More
1845 Words | 8 Pages

The knowledge argument claims the existence of consciousness in a way that one cannot have complete knowledge about physical truth until he/she has experienced the same. In short the knowledge argument proposes the existence of non-physical factors in physical truths. Even if you have complete information about an experience, human response to the experience, effects of the experience still you don’t have complete knowledge about the experience until you have experienced the same. The knowledge argument was proposed by Frank Jackson through what is called Mary’s experiment.

Read More
2821 Words | 12 Pages

In Saunders’ view and Weber’s view, positivism can be studied from both epistemology and ontology

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

One of the main features of this theory is that "truth” consists

Read More
1156 Words | 5 Pages

“[T]heory is the framework for observations and facts. Theories may change, or the way that they are interpreted may change, but the facts themselves don't change.” Once the facts and truths of the idea have been set, they cannot change. Eventually with enough facts (truths) this hypothesis can be claimed as a fact itself. It is deemed truth.

Read More

More about To What Extent Have Epistemologists Managed To Provide Sufficient Conditions For Propositional Knowledge

Related Topics

Open Document