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KNOWLEDGE, JUSTIFICATION, AND ADEQUATE REASONS

Part of: General logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

PAUL ÉGRÉ ,
PAUL MARTY  and
BRYAN RENNE
PAUL ÉGRÉ
Affiliation:
INSTITUT JEAN-NICOD CNRS/ENS/EHESS, PSL UNIVERSITY 29, RUE D'ULM - 75005PARIS, FRANCEE-mail:paul.egre@ens.fr
PAUL MARTY
Affiliation:
LEIBNIZ-ZAS BERLIN BERLIN, GERMANY and UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDONLONDON, UKE-mail:p.marty@ucl.ac.uk
BRYAN RENNE
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWANSASKATOON, SK, CANADAE-mail:bryan@renne.org
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Abstract

Is knowledge definable as justified true belief (“JTB”)? We argue that one can legitimately answer positively or negatively, depending on whether or not one’s true belief is justified by what we call adequate reasons. To facilitate our argument we introduce a simple propositional logic of reason-based belief, and give an axiomatic characterization of the notion of adequacy for reasons. We show that this logic is sufficiently flexible to accommodate various useful features, including quantification over reasons. We use our framework to contrast two notions of JTB: one internalist, the other externalist. We argue that Gettier cases essentially challenge the internalist notion but not the externalist one. Our approach commits us to a form of infallibilism about knowledge, but it also leaves us with a puzzle, namely whether knowledge involves the possession of only adequate reasons, or leaves room for some inadequate reasons. We favor the latter position, which reflects a milder and more realistic version of infallibilism.

Keywords

knowledgebeliefjustification logicsadequate reasonsinfallibilismexternalism

MSC classification

Primary: 03B42: Logics of knowledge and belief (including belief change)
Secondary: 03B45: Modal logic (including the logic of norms)
Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Symbolic Logic , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 687 - 727
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Copyright
© Association for Symbolic Logic, 2020

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