Introduction to Philosophy

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?
(AND DO WE HAVE ANY?)

Professor Duncan Pritchard FRSE

duncan.pritchard@ed.ac.uk www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/people/view/duncan-pritchard-frse

Ren Descartes (1596-1650)

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The field of philosophy which explores the nature of knowledge, and related questions (such as the nature of truth, the nature of evidence, the nature of rationality etc.,) is known as epistemology.

Structure of the Lecture

Part One: The Basic Constituents of Knowledge Part Two: The Gettier Problem Part Three: Do We Have any Knowledge?

Part One: The Basic Constituents of Knowledge

Knowledge in the Information Age

More than ever, information is widely available to us (most of us, anyway). But lots of information by itself is little use unless one can sift the good information from the bad. Thats why knowledge is so important.

Knowledge in Everyday Usage

David knows that the kettle has boiled. Suilin knows where the secret compartment is. Alasdair knows why the house burned down. Matthew knows how to fly an aeroplane. Michela knows which route to take. Allan knows so-and-so from that TV show.

Propositional Knowledge
We are going to focus on a particular kind of knowledge, called propositional knowledge. This is knowledge of a proposition (i.e., knowledge-that something is the case).

What is a Proposition?
A proposition is what is expressed by a declarative sentence, which is a sentence that declares that something is the case. A proposition is either true or false. Some sentences that express propositions:
The cat is on the mat. Your dinner is in the oven. The moon is made of cheese.

Some sentences that dont express propositions:

Shut that door. Yes please. How can I help you?

Propositional versus Ability Knowledge

Knowledge-that:
Knowing that Paris is the capital of France. Knowing that the earth orbits the sun. Knowing that one has toothache.

Knowledge-how:
Knowing how to drive. Knowing how to play piano. Knowing how to beat the stock market.

Two Conditions for Propositional Knowledge

One can know a proposition only if: (i) That proposition is true; (ii) One believes that proposition.

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Knowledge and Certainty

Question: If knowledge entails truth, then does it also entail certainty or infallibility (i.e., does it rule out any possibility of error)?

Answer: No. That knowledge entails truth only means that you cant know a falsehood. The truth can be known in a fallible way.

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Knowledge and Certainty: An Example

Do you know what you had for breakfast this morning?

But are you certain about this? Isnt it possible that you have made a mistake?
The moral: while knowledge demands truth, it doesnt require certainty (any more than it requires infallibility).

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Knowledge and Probability

Knowing that a proposition is true is not the same as knowing that this proposition is probable. Compare: I know that human beings have been to the moon. I know that it is likely/probable that human beings have been to the moon. The second claim is not equivalent to the first but much weaker (it implies doubt about whether human beings have been to the moon).
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Knowing versus Getting it Right

There is more to knowledge than mere true belief. One can get it right in lots of ways which wouldnt suffice for knowledge.

Example: A juror believes the defendant is guilty purely out of prejudice. As it happens, he is right. But clearly he does not know that the defendant is guilty.

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Two Intuitions About Knowledge

The Ability Intuition Knowledge requires getting it right through ones ability The Anti-Luck Intuition Knowledge requires getting it right in a nonlucky way

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Part One Conclusions

One core usage of knowledge is propositional knowledge (i.e., knowledge-that). Two basic conditions for propositional knowledge are that one believes the proposition, and that the proposition must be true. But there is more to knowledge than mere true belief.
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Part Two: The Gettier Problem

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The Classical Account of Knowledge

Plato (427-347 BC)

One can know a proposition if, only if: (i) That proposition is true; (ii) One believes that proposition; (iii) Ones belief is justified.
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Gettier Counterexamples
Edmund Gettier (b. 1927)

Examples of justified true belief where the true belief in question is just too lucky to count as knowledge
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A Gettier-Style Case
The Stopped Clock
You believe that the time is 7.28am. You are justified in believing that the time is 7.28am. It is true that it is 7.28am. But you dont know that its 7.28am because, unbeknownst to you, what you are looking at is a stopped clock.

A stopped clock, yesterday.

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Another Gettier-Style Case

The Sheep
You believe that there is a sheep in the field. You are justified in believing that there is a sheep in the field. It is true that there is a sheep in the field. But you dont know that there is a sheep in the field because, unbeknownst to you, what you are looking at is a big sheep-shaped rock which is obscuring from view a sheep hidden behind.
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A Formula for Inventing Gettier-Style Cases

Step One Take a belief that is formed in such a way that it would usually result in a false belief, but which is justified nonetheless.

Step Two Make the belief true, albeit for reasons that have nothing to do with the subjects justification.
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Patching up the Classical Account: No False Lemmas

Keith Lehrer (b. 1936)

One can know a proposition if, only if: (i) That proposition is true; (ii) One believes that proposition; (iii) Ones belief is justified; (iv) Ones belief is not based on any false assumptions (or lemmas).
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Problems for the No False Lemmas Proposal

The no false lemmas proposal needs to offer a principled account of what constitutes a lemma such that: It is not so broad as to exclude bona fide cases of knowledge. It is broad enough to explain why Gettier cases arent case of knowledge.

This is easier said than done!

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Two Questions Raised by Gettier-Style Cases

(1) Is justification even necessary for knowledge?
(2) How does one go about eliminating knowledge-undermining luck?

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Part Two Conclusions

The classical account of knowledge holds that knowledge is justified true belief. But Gettier cases demonstrate that knowledge is not justified true belief. Nor is knowledge justified true belief plus some obvious extra condition. So what is knowledge?
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Part Three Do We Have any Knowledge?

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Radical Scepticism
Radical scepticism is the view that knowledge (at least of the world around us) is impossible. Sceptics make use of sceptical hypotheses, scenarios where everything is as it usually appears to be, but where we are being radically deceived.

Ren Descartes (1596-1650)

The sceptic says that we cannot rule-out sceptical hypotheses, and thus argues that we are unable to know anything about the world around us.
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The Brain-in-a-Vat Sceptical Argument

1. I dont know that Im not a brain-in-a-vat. 2. If I dont know that Im not a brain-in-avat, then I dont know very much. C. So, I dont know very much.
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Brains-in-Vats
Question: Why dont we know that were not brains-in-vats? Answer: Because we cant tell the difference!

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Brains-in-Vats and Everyday Knowledge

So even if we dont know that were not brains-in-vats, so what? But if you were a brain-in-a-vat, then you wouldnt have hands (since brains-in-vats are handless by definition). So how do you know that you have hands?(And if you dont know this, what do you know?)
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Epistemic Vertigo
It is certainly part of the human condition that we are fallible creatures. But perhaps, once we reflect on the matter (and thus reflectively ascend), we realise that there is more than just fallibility at issue here. Maybe we simply dont know as much as we typically suppose.
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Part Three Conclusions

Radical scepticism is the view that we know very little, if anything, about the world around us. Radical scepticism makes use of sceptical hypotheses, which are scenarios indistinguishable from ordinary life but where we are radically in error. It seems that if we cannot rule-out these hypotheses, then much of what we think we know is under threat.
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Further Reading
I explore these issues about the nature and extent of knowledge in my introductory textbook, What is This Thing Called Knowledge? (Routledge). See especially parts 1 & 3.

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Thank You For Listening!

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