- Published: September 21, 2022
- Updated: September 21, 2022
- University / College: University of Aberdeen
- Level: Doctor of Philosophy
- Language: English
- Downloads: 35
Epistemology Epistemology is a special branch of philosophy that the study with nature and scope knowledge. Epistemology strives to explain what knowledge is, how it is acquired, and the scope to which knowledge is relevant to a given subject can be acquired. In the field of epistemology, many scholars have tried to delve on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how knowledge contribute towards notions such as beliefs, truths, and justification (BonJour pp. 4).
Arguably, epistemology can be defined as the philosophical study of knowledge and belief. It is the efforts that would be needed for people to have knowledge. Knowledge and belief are used differently in philosophical terms. The connection between knowledge and belief is that belief is a belief is considered to be knowledge if the belief held is true and if the believer has a reasonable justification to believe it is true. According to the famous scholar Plato, knowledge can, therefore, be defined to mean Justified True Belief (JTB) also known as knowledge theory.
There are three terms “ truth”, “ belief”, and “ justification” which are very pronounced in the knowledge theory. In epistemology, belief denotes faith. It is concerned with what we believe such as traditional held believes. This includes the truth and everything we believe to be right from our cognitive point of view. What a person belief of something as true or not is not a necessity for a belief. One my belief something which is wrong but that will not disregard the belief from being true. The belief held by such a person was a mistaken belief but not that the belief was wrong. This brings the concept of truth. These conditions of truth, belief and justification must be taken together to be sufficient for JTB.
The justified True Belief was strongly held in the world of philosophy but not until Gettier came in and questioned the knowledge that was held for thousands of years. In his argument, Gettier claimed that the knowledge held by someone may be justified and true, yet fail to count as knowledge. This was known as Gettier problem.
An example of Gettier Problem
Suppose I stumble on Mary, a class mate driving license which is written that she comes from Chicago. Having seen that legal document, I’m justified to belief that Mary comes from Chicago. Suppose I infer from the above case and say that someone in my class comes from Chicago. Now, Mary driving license turns to be a fake one. It seems that what I believed was wrong which even makes my second belief to be wrong. Unknown to me, I may have believed it right that Mary comes from Chicago and it turns out to be true. The knowledge I have just acquire have no justification at all. It is by luck. It is the same thing in the first case whereby the truth did to require me to have a justification. It turns out that my Justified True belief is not true. According to Geitter, an item can be qualified as knowledge, not because the truth is justified and true but the justification of the belief must call for its truth (BonJour pp 15).
It is therefore right to conclude that JTB cannot stand on its own unless the justification of the truth must be proved to be true. Until then, the knowledge theory may lack credibility.
Works Cited
BonJour, Laurence. Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses. . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Print. pp 2-23