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Justified True Belief Account Of Knowledge Essay

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The Justified True Belief Account of Knowledge is “S knows that P iff: P is true, S believes that P, S is justified in believing that P. If someone believes that something (A) is true and that something (A) turns out to be true, then that person is justified in believing that (A) is true” (Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?). Gettier’s problem with the justified true belief account of knowledge is that sometimes these conditions can be met but the person will still fail to have knowledge. For example, “Smith and Jones have both applied for the same job. Smith has very good evidence that Jones will get the job, and Smith has very good evidence that Jones has 10 coins in his pocket. Smith believes Jones will get the job. Jones is the …show more content…

Justification is close to the truth but not exactly the same. She gives several theories for this such as internalism when part of the situation that the believer can’t access is false (Zagzebski, The Inescapability of Gettier Problems). In the “Smith owns a Ford or Brown is in Barcelona’ scenario. Smith tells you he owns a Ford and gives you all of the possible justification you might need to believe that he owns a Ford, but then it turns out that he is actually lying, and also it just happens that Brown is in Barcelona” (Philosophy After Dark). The original statement is true and justified but you don’t have knowledge of this. Zagzebski also talks about reliabalism, which is ‘a group of theories in which believers are justified when their beliefs are formed in a reliable, or truth-conducive, manner’. In the fake barn scenario “you are driving through the country and unknown to you, the inhabitants of the particular region you are in at the time, to make themselves look more prosperous, have erected 3 fake barn facades. You have good eyes, and they are reliable enough in ordinary circumstances to know a barn from a certain distance. These are ordinary

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