A Defense of JTB free essay sample

A Defense Of JTB In Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? , Edmund Gettier argues that Platos theory of knowledge equalling Justification, truth and belief is false. Within Gettiers argument, he makes Justifications using false ideas. In this paper, I will argue that Gettiers argument fails because Justification cannot be made on false ideas and thus JTB Oustification, Truth, Belief) can continue to function as the definition of knowledge. Platos Theory of Knowledge states that if a person S has a belief P, if P is actually rue and S is Justified in having P, then S in fact knows P. For example, I believe that there is a Mac Book Pro in front of me. This is in fact true- there is indeed a Mac Book Pro in front of me. I have Justification to believe that there is a Mac Book Pro in front of me because I am using it to type this paper. We will write a custom essay sample on A Defense of JTB or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Therefore, by JTB, I know there is a Mac Book Pro in front of me. To Gettier, however, the idea of JTB does not constitute knowledge. To illustrate his point, Gettier preposes an example involving two Job candidates, Smith and Jones. Smith and Jones have both applied for the same Job. At work, Smith is told by the company president that Jones will get the Job. He also sees Jones counting the coins in his pocket, perhaps to buy a snack with later, and see that Jones has ten coins in his pocket. Therefore, Smith reasons that the person who will get the Job has ten coins in his pocket, a Justified conclusion. However, it turns out that the president was wrong and Smith in fact gets the Job. By sheer coincidence, Smith also finds he has ten coins in his pocket. This means that Smiths belief that the person who gets the Job will have ten coins in his pocket is actually true. In this example, Smith holds a belief S that the man who will get the Job has ten coins in his pocket. He has justification for believing this because a person with credibility, the company president said that Jones was getting the Job and he saw Jones counting out the ten coins in his pocket. And in truth, the man who got the Job did in fact have ten coins in his pocket. So, by JTB, Smith knew that the person getting the Job would have ten oins in his pocket. Gettier points out, however, that this is not an actual case of knowledge. Smith was right because he got lucky, not because he knew. In summary, the Smith case follows Gettiers argument as follows: (Pl) If JTB is knowledge, then Smith knows that the person getting the Job has ten coins in his pocket (P2) JTB was not knowledge in this case, Smith merely has ten coins on him by luck and receives the Job. (P3) Therefore, JTB is not knowledge. However, Gettiers line of reasoning is mistaken. The problem with his argument ies in the Justification J of JTB. For an idea to be truly Justified, the process used to come to that idea must be entirely true. For example, let us say that I go into a store looking tor burlap s oes nave never bought TOMS, but reason I would t size ten because all my shoes are size ten. I ask the sales clerk if they have burlap TOMS in size ten. The sales clerk tells me that they do have burlap TOMS which are size ten. He brings them out and they indeed appear to be burlap. I try them on, assuming from what the sales clerk has said that they are size ten. They fit and I buy the shoes and take them home. I Justifiably believe that I have bought burlap TOMS. Because they fit my feet, I am Justified in thinking the shoes to be size ten. However, the salesmen was in fact wrong and the shoes were size ten-and-a-half. This example shows that I can reach Justified false truths under false ideas. Justification in the Smith example came from false ideas. Smith falsely believed that Jones would get the job because of what the president told him. This lead him to believe that a person ith ten coins in their pocket would get the Job because Jones has ten coins in his pocket. Therfore, Gettiers reasoning could be considered incorrect because his counter-example is based upon beliefs Justified by false ideas. As an example of complete truth, let us revisit my Mac Book Pro example. I can for sure know that I have a Mac Book Pro in front me because nothing led me astray when making all of my observations. In other words, no false ideas led to my Justified, true belief that there is a Mac Book Pro in front of me. Therefore, I know by JTB that here is a Mac Book Pro in front of me. In conclusion, I have argued that Justification through false ideas cannot be used to disprove JTB as a source of knowledge. Therefore, the Smith case presented by Gettier fails along with his claim that JTB cannot signify knowledge