Tonight

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Tonight
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2. Lecture Overview

• 1. The Traditional Account and Gettier
• 2. No False Premisses
• 3. The Causal Theory of Knowing

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1. The Traditional Account
S knows that p iff 1. p is true 2. S believes
that p 3. Ss belief that p is justified but is
the traditional account sufficient?
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1. Gettier Counter-Examples

• I. Smith believes
• Jones will get the job and has 10 coins in his
  pocket
• The person who gets the job has 10 coins in his
  pocket
• But Jones does not get the job, and Smith has 10
  coins in his pocket.
• Satisfies traditional account 1. (b) is true, 2.
  Smith believes (b), and 3. his belief is
  justified
• but Smith does not know (b).

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1. Gettier Counter-Examples

• II. Smith believes
• Jones owns a Ford
• Jones owns a Ford or Brown is in Barcelona
• But Jones does not own a Ford, and Brown is in
  Barcelona.
• Satisfies traditional account 1. (b) is true, 2.
  Smith believes (b), and 3. his belief is
  justified
• but Smith does not know (b).

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1. Gettier Counter-Examples

• S has a justified but false belief.
• S uses the justified but false belief to form a
  justified true belief.
• The true belief is justified, but not known.
• Something has gone wrong. But what?

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2. No False Premisses

• S knows that p iff
• 1. p is true
• 2. S believes that p
• 3. Ss belief that p is justified
• 4. Ss belief that p is not based on any false
  premisses
• Cf. M. Clark, Knowledge and Grounds, Analysis
  1963

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2. Sufficient?

• I. Smith believes
• (p) there is a sheep in the field.
• What Smith sees is a dog that looks like a sheep.
• But there is a sheep in field, out of view.
• So, Smiths belief (p) is true, Smiths belief is
  justified, but Smith doesnt know p.
• Q does Smiths belief that p rest on any (false)
  premisses?

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2. Sufficient?

• II. Smith believes
• (p) Jones owns a Ford
• He was told this by Brown, a reliable witness. At
  the time, Browns information was correct
• But Smith then sells his Ford and buys a
  Volkswagen. An hour later, he then wins a Ford in
  a raffle, so he now owns a Ford and Volkswagen.
• 1. p is true 2. Smith believes p 3. Smiths
  belief that p is justified 4. Smiths belief
  that p is not based on any false premisses
  (Browns info correct at time)
• but not knowledge

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2. Necessary?

• III. Smith believes
• (p) someone in his office owns a Ford
• Because he also believes
• (q) Jones owns a Ford
• (r) Jones works in his office
• (s) Brown owns a Ford,
• (t) Brown works in his office.
• But (s) is false, hence not known. (Recall
  knowledge is a success term Nec, if S knows p,
  then p.)
• So there is a false premiss...
• but Smith still knows p!

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3. The Causal Theory

• Knowledge requires an appropriate causal
  connection between Ss belief that p and the fact
  that p
• Smith causally unrelated to the fact that he has
  10 coins in his pocket
• Smith causally unrelated to the real sheep in the
  field
• Smiths belief that Jones owns a Ford now is
  causally unrelated to the fact that Jones won one
  in a raffle
• Smith knows that someone in his office owns a
  Ford because he is causally connected to the fact
  that Jones owns a Ford.

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3. The Causal Theory

• S knows that p iff
• 1. p is true
• 2. S believes that p
• 3. Ss belief that p is appropriately causally
  related to the fact that p.

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3. The Causal Theory

• Appropriate causal connections include
• 1. Perception
• 2. Memory
• 3. Testimony
• 4. Inference

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3. The Causal Theory

• 1. Weaker than traditional accounts
• Internalist Theory of Knowledge you need to be
  able to say how you know.
• Externalist Theory of Knowledge you dont need
  to be able to say how you know causal connection
  is sufficient.
• but is this knowledge? E.g. Norman the
  clairvoyant. (See Week 4.)

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3. The Causal Theory

• 2. Counter-Example?
• Henry is driving in fake barn country
• Henry doesnt know this, and forms the belief
  there is a real barn in front of him.
• In fact, this is the only real barn in the area,
  so he is appropriately causally related to a real
  barn...
• but does he know there is a real barn in front
  of him?

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Impressions?

• Some possible responses
• The counter-examples are silly and contrived
• We havent found the right analysis yet
• The question What is knowledge? is (in some
  sense) ill-conceived

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Further Reading

• There is lots written on this, including
• Dancy, Jonathan. An Introduction to Contemporary
  Epistemology (Blackwell, 1985), Chapter 2
• Steup, Mattius. The Analysis of Knowledge,
  Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy (online).
• Sturgeon, Scott. Knowledge, in A.C. Grayling
  (ed.), Philosophy 1 A Guide Through the Subject
  (Oxford University Press, 1998)

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Recap

• 1. The Structure of Gettier Counter-Examples
• 2. No False Premisses
• 3. The Causal Theory of Knowing