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365DaysofPhilosophy 34 - Skepticism and Justified True Belief Analysis of Knowledge
Skepticism is a very early philosophical approach, with two main forms. Firstly, a denial of genuine knowledge, that we really just have beliefs about the world; the most famous of the ancient skeptics was Pyrrho of Ellis around 300CBE, who proposed this extreme or radical skepticism. His view was that we cannot have knowledge about a subject at all (which seems self-refuting, as how do you verify that you can’t have any knowledge…?) but concluded with “we can never attain certain knowledge, so our best path is to live quietly and modestly and seek peace of mind.”
In more modern terms, skepticism has become less metaphysical (‘what do we know?’) and more epistemological: can we know, how can we have genuine knowledge? Modern skepticism, particularly scientific skepticism, focuses on particular fields of knowledge and methods of justification. Some popular topics for modern skepticism include pseudoscientific and paranormal claims.
Some conditions that have historically been set out as the standard requirement in the analysis of the concept of knowing is the Justified True Belief Analysis of Knowledge.
A knows that b is true, if and only if (iff):
Historically correspondence has often been suggested as a criterion for the truth of a statement: For some philosophers this is not a mere criterion of truth, but the truth of statements consists in, or is constituted by, correspondence to the way the world is.
Ordinarily, we have no trouble understanding what someone means when they say something like “I ate all the pie for dinner”. Indeed, there is a simple answer to the question ‘what is truth’. If a certain state-of-affairs exists or occurs in the world, and we assert that it does, then our statement is true. The statement “rain is wet” is true, if and only if, (iff) rain is wet. In addition, if I did eat all the pie for dinner!
‘A statement is true if it corresponds with the facts” meaning: that is “if it corresponds with some actual state-of-affairs in the world”. If a certain state-of-affairs exists or occurs in the world, and we assert that it does, then our statement is true. True sentences are accurate representations of the world. For any proposition p: p is true if and only if p corresponds to a fact.
Further Resources:
The analysis of knowlege — Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
Knowledge from Great Issues in Philosophy
Gettier challenges to Justified True Belief
Gettier Problems
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Skepticism is a very early philosophical approach, with two main forms. Firstly, a denial of genuine knowledge, that we really just have beliefs about the world; the most famous of the ancient skeptics was Pyrrho of Ellis around 300CBE, who proposed this extreme or radical skepticism. His view was that we cannot have knowledge about a subject at all (which seems self-refuting, as how do you verify that you can’t have any knowledge…?) but concluded with “we can never attain certain knowledge, so our best path is to live quietly and modestly and seek peace of mind.”
In more modern terms, skepticism has become less metaphysical (‘what do we know?’) and more epistemological: can we know, how can we have genuine knowledge? Modern skepticism, particularly scientific skepticism, focuses on particular fields of knowledge and methods of justification. Some popular topics for modern skepticism include pseudoscientific and paranormal claims.
Some conditions that have historically been set out as the standard requirement in the analysis of the concept of knowing is the Justified True Belief Analysis of Knowledge.
A knows that b is true, if and only if (iff):
Historically correspondence has often been suggested as a criterion for the truth of a statement: For some philosophers this is not a mere criterion of truth, but the truth of statements consists in, or is constituted by, correspondence to the way the world is.
Ordinarily, we have no trouble understanding what someone means when they say something like “I ate all the pie for dinner”. Indeed, there is a simple answer to the question ‘what is truth’. If a certain state-of-affairs exists or occurs in the world, and we assert that it does, then our statement is true. The statement “rain is wet” is true, if and only if, (iff) rain is wet. In addition, if I did eat all the pie for dinner!
‘A statement is true if it corresponds with the facts” meaning: that is “if it corresponds with some actual state-of-affairs in the world”. If a certain state-of-affairs exists or occurs in the world, and we assert that it does, then our statement is true. True sentences are accurate representations of the world. For any proposition p: p is true if and only if p corresponds to a fact.
Further Resources:
The analysis of knowlege — Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
Knowledge from Great Issues in Philosophy
Gettier challenges to Justified True Belief
Gettier Problems