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Is Justified True Belief Knowledge Edmund Gettier

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In his 1963 article “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”, Edmund Gettier pointed out the fault in the traditional definition of knowledge and presented two counterexamples. The problem created by the two counterexamples is called the Gettier problem. In detail, the Gettier problem is whether a true belief based on invalid reasons counts as knowledge. My own Gettier counterexample is as follows. One day, my dad and I went to Costco Gas Station and there were already a lot of cars waiting for gasoline filling. So we queued in the last. When we were the next one to use the pump, there were two cars using the pumps, with one in the front and the other following it. My dad then asked me, of the two cars in front of us, which one would leave first. …show more content…

My dad told me that the two cars did not start using the pumps at the same moment, and the bigger car used the pump earlier. But the smaller car still left first because the driver of the smaller car was faster when moving the pump and putting it back, while the driver of the bigger car was chatting with others via phone. In this case, it seems that my belief that the first car would leave first is justified or reasonable. And my belief is also true. But it still can’t be admitted that I know that the first car would leave first because I neglected the speed of both drivers. From the above example and the two counterexamples presented by Edmund Gettier, we can see that the fault comes from an inference based on a false premise and there is sufficient evidence to believe the premise is true. By following all the conditions of traditional definition of knowledge and pointing out the above fault, Gettier-style examples show us that knowledge is JTB well supported by evidence, none of which is false. Therefore, Gettier-style examples are very effective in refuting the standard account of knowledge as justified true …show more content…

The belief cannot be accidentally true. Thus, what qualifies a true belief as knowledge is its reliable linkage to the facts that make the belief true. A belief must not only be true but also “track the facts”. By “tracking the facts”, we mean it satisfy the variation and adherence conditions. The variation condition is that if p were not true, then S would not believe that p. The adherence condition is that if p were, contrary to fact, true, then S would believe that p. Nozick’s account of knowledge is as the following: S knows that P if and only if P is true, S believes that P, and S’s belief is reliably true. The third condition is consisted of variation and adherence conditions. He passes each Gettier case to the four conditions to see which condition does not satisfy. If a case fails any of the four conditions, then it is not a knowledge and the test does not need to continue any more. Gettier cases usually fail the variation condition as we can see from Gettier’s original example and the Fake Barn case. In Gettier’s original example, if we assume it were false that the man who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket, then Smith would still believe that the man who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket because the boss would still say that Jones gets the job. Similarly, in the Fake Barn case, if we assume it were false that what Henry

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