[lit-ideas] Gettier and rational examination
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:11:12 -0800 (PST)
It has been recently suggested that Gettier's paper demonstrates that JTB
theory can be examined in a rational way, which presumably saves the honor of
philosophy. Well, I am not convinced that it does. For those who haven't read
this short paper yet, it can be read at:
http://www.ditext.com/gettier/gettier.html
Gettier's paper attempts to demonstrate that justified true belief does not
provide (jointly) sufficient conditions for knowledge in some cases. But surely
it doesn't avoid the issue that was at stake, which was how to define such
items as justified true belief, and especially how to define them independently
of each other.
Let us suppose that Smith has strong evidence for the following proposition:
1. Jones owns a Ford.
Smith's evidence might be that Jones has at all times in the past within
Smith's memory owned a car, and always a Ford, and that Jones has just offered
Smith a ride while driving a Ford.
Well, anyone who thinks that seeing someone driving a car is sufficient
justification to assume that he owns it must be living on Mars. I drive my
mother's car regularly and I don't "own" it. Consequently, the derived
conclusions don't stand either.
O.K.
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