Dialectic · Saturday, September 5, 2026
Knowledge as Justified True Belief
Analytic Epistemology — Plato to Gettier
The claim
"To know that P is to (1) believe P, (2) for P to be true, and (3) to have justification for believing P."
The premises that support it
- Knowledge requires belief — you cannot know what you do not believe.
- Knowledge requires truth — you cannot know what is false.
- Knowledge requires justification — a lucky guess is not knowledge.
The counter-example
Smith justifiably believes 'The person who will get the job has ten coins in their pocket.' His justification: he counted Jones's coins and was told Jones got the job. But Smith himself gets the job — and Smith also happens to have ten coins in his pocket. His belief is true, justified, and yet seems not to count as knowledge.