The Gettier Problem, named after the philosopher Edmund Gettier, has posed a significant challenge to the traditional definition of knowledge since its introduction in 1963. Before Gettier, knowledge was commonly defined by the tripartite theory, which stated that for someone to know a proposition, three conditions must be satisfied: the proposition must be true, the person must believe the proposition, and there must be justification for the belief. However, Gettier’s paper demonstrated that there are situations where these three conditions are met, but the resulting belief does not seem to qualify as knowledge due to the presence of some element of luck or error. These scenarios are now famously known as “Gettier cases.”
Example 1: The Job Applicant
Smith and Jones have both applied for the same job. The company president confidentially tells Smith that Jones will get the job. Trusting this, Smith infers that “the person who will get the job has ten coins in their pocket” because he had earlier seen Jones counting ten coins. However, unbeknownst to Smith, he also has ten coins in his pocket and, in a surprising turn of events, the company hires Smith instead. Smith’s belief was justified and true, yet he did not truly know the person hired would have ten coins in their pocket, as his belief was based on incorrect assumptions about who would be hired.
Example 2: The Sheep in the Field
A person, let’s call her Jane, looks out into a field and sees what she believes to be a sheep. Based on this observation, she forms the belief that “there is a sheep in the field.” Unknown to her, what she is actually seeing is a dog disguised as a sheep. However, behind that dog, out of her sight, there actually is a sheep in the field. Thus, while her belief is true and justified, it doesn’t seem to be knowledge because it was true by coincidence.
Example 3: The Clock that Stopped
John looks at a clock showing 2:00 PM and forms the belief that it is 2:00 PM. Unbeknownst to John, the clock had stopped exactly 12 hours ago. Despite this, it is indeed 2:00 PM at the moment he looks at the clock. John’s belief that it is 2:00 PM is true and he has justification for believing so (the position of the clock hands), but he does not truly know the time because his correctness is merely coincidental.
Example 4: The Exam Guess
Sarah is uncertain about the answer to a multiple-choice question on an exam but decides to guess. She chooses option C, believing it to be correct based on a vague recollection of her study. As it turns out, option C is correct. While Sarah has a true belief that her answer is correct and is justified in trusting her study habits, the fact that she guessed without specific recollection of the fact makes her belief more akin to a correct guess rather than knowledge.
Example 5: The Lucky Investor
Consider a stock investor, Tom, who believes a particular stock will increase in value because he thinks the company will launch a new product soon. His belief is based on careful analysis of market trends and past company behavior. However, Tom is mistaken about the product launch. Coincidentally, the company’s stock rises due to an unexpected takeover bid. Although Tom’s belief that the stock would rise was true and justified, his reasoning was flawed, making it unclear if he truly ‘knew’ the stock would rise.
These Gettier cases demonstrate that even if a belief is true, believed, and justified, it might still fail to be knowledge if the truth of the belief depends on some element of luck or error. The challenge presented by these examples has led to significant philosophical inquiry into the nature of knowledge, prompting theorists to add a fourth condition to the definition of knowledge or to entirely rethink how knowledge should be defined. The debate continues to be a central topic in the field of epistemology, showing the profound impact of Gettier’s critique.
References
- Gettier, Edmund L. “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” Analysis, vol. 23, no. 6, 1963, pp. 121–123. This is the original paper by Edmund Gettier that introduced the problem. It is a must-read for understanding the foundational arguments and examples directly from Gettier.
- Pritchard, Duncan. “What is This Thing Called Knowledge?” Routledge, 2018. This book provides an excellent introduction to the Gettier Problem and other issues in the theory of knowledge.
- Zagzebski, Linda. “The Inescapability of Gettier Problems.” Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 174, 1994, pp. 65–73. Zagzebski explores various attempts to resolve Gettier problems and argues for their fundamental role in understanding knowledge.
- Turri, John, Peter D. Klein, and Ernest Sosa (eds.). “Ad Infinitum: New Essays on Epistemological Infinitism,” Oxford University Press, 2014. This collection includes discussions on the implications of Gettier’s work and explores infinitism in response to traditional epistemological problems.
- Ichikawa, Jonathan Jenkins, and Matthias Steup. “The Analysis of Knowledge.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018. This entry provides a comprehensive overview of the analysis of knowledge and discusses the Gettier Problem in depth, along with various responses to it.