On the logical unsolvability of the Gettier problem

Synthese 142 (1):61 - 79 (2004)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The tripartite account of propositional, fallibilist knowledge that p as justified true belief can become adequate only if it can solve the Gettier Problem. However, the latter can be solved only if the problem of a successful coordination of the resources (at least truth and justification) necessary and sufficient to deliver propositional, fallibilist knowledge that p can be solved. In this paper, the coordination problem is proved to be insolvable by showing that it is equivalent to the ''''coordinated attack'''' problem, which is demonstrably insolvable in epistemic logic. It follows that the tripartite account is not merely inadequate as it stands, as proved by Gettier-type counterexamples, but demonstrably irreparable in principle, so that efforts to improve it can never succeed.

Similar books and articles

Internalism and the Collapse of the Gettier Problem.Timothy McGrew & Lydia McGrew - 1998 - Journal of Philosophical Research 23:239-256.
D efeating the Dogma of Defeasibility.Ram Neta - 2009 - In Patrick Greenough, Duncan Pritchard & Timothy Williamson (eds.), Williamson on Knowledge. Oxford University Press. pp. 161--82.
A contextualist solution to the Gettier problem.Igor Douven - 2005 - Grazer Philosophische Studien 69 (1):207-228.
Accidentally factive mental states.Baron Reed - 2005 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (1):134–142.
What Should a Theory of Knowledge Do?Elijah Chudnoff - 2011 - Dialectica 65 (4):561-579.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
535 (#30,512)

6 months
91 (#40,517)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Luciano Floridi
Yale University

References found in this work

Philosophical explanations.Robert Nozick - 1981 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Warrant and proper function.Alvin Plantinga - 1993 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Theory of knowledge.Roderick M. Chisholm - 1966 - Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,: Prentice-Hall.
Warrant: The Current Debate.Warrant and Proper Function.Alvin Plantinga - 1993 - New York, US: Oxford University Press USA.

View all 31 references / Add more references