PHI 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Descriptive Knowledge, Headache, Bertrand Russell
13 Jan 2017
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Chapter 12: What is Knowledge?
1. Epistemology
a. The part of philosophy that tries to understand concepts such as the idea of
knowing things, of saying that something is strongly supported by evidence,
justification, and confirmation
b. Try to evaluate the common-sense idea that we have knowledge and that we are
rationally justified in the beliefs we have
2. Three Kinds of Knowledge
a. Propositional knowledge
i. Ex: S knows that the Rocky Mountains are in North America
ii. The object of the verb in this example is a proposition
iii. Asserts that S knows that the proposition is true
iv. Does not require that you have direct acquaintance with the objects that
the proposition is about
1. You know that the Rockies are in North America without having
ever seen them
b. Object knowledge
i. S is related to an object (a person, place, or thing
ii. Propositional knowledge is not sufficient for object knowledge
iii. Object knowledge requires some sort of direct acquaintance with the
object
c. Know-how knowledge
i. Propositional knowledge is neither necessary nor sufficient for knowing
how to perform some task
3. Two Requirements for Knowledge: Belief and Truth
a. Two ideas that form part of the concept of knowledge
i. If S knows that p, then S must believe that p. (belief)
ii. If S knows that p, then p must be true. (truth)
4. Plato: True belief Isn’t Sufficient for Knowledge
a. Knowledge requires justification
5. Justification
a. Sometimes we start believing that a proposition is true because we consider an
argument that describes the evidence available
i. Ex: Sherlock Holmes believes that Moriarty is the murderer because of the
evidence he found at the crime scene
b. There is also such a thing as noninferential justification
i. When propositions that we believe are apprehended more or less directly
ii. Ex: You believe you have a headache
c. Justification when it is used in accounts of what knowledge is
i. We should think of individuals as having certain duties concerning how
their beliefs are formed
ii. A belief is justified if the process by which it was formed does not violate
any duties that the person has
6. The JTB Theory
a. Knowledge is one and the same thing as justified true belief
b. (JTB) For any individual S and any proposition p, S knows that p if and only if
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