Restoring the Fallibilist Defeasibility Approach to Knowledge from Falsehood

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1983-4012.2021.1.40517

Keywords:

Knowledge from falsehood, Epistemic defeat, Inferential knowledge

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to respond to two objections which can be made against the fallibilist defeasibility approach to inferential knowledge from falsehood (KFF). The first objection is that the absence of restorers reveals the explanatory incompleteness of the theory with regard to KFF, while the second one is that the thought experiment aimed at explaining KFF violates the Truth-Resistance Principle* (TR*) — the core thesis of Fallibilist Defeasibility Theory. In order to pursue the goals of this essay, I explain what the knowledge from falsehood debate is about; Secondly, I explain the fallibilist defeasibility approach developed by de Almeida (2017) to deal with KFF. Finally, I set the arguments up which can be brought against the fallibilist defeasibility approach and explain why they do not work.  

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Eduardo Alves, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.

Mestre em Filosofia pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), em Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.

References

ALVES, Eduardo. Raciocínio com Falsidades: Um Ensaio sobre Conhecimento Inferencial. 2021. 145 p. Dissertação (Mestrado em Filosofia) – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, PUCRS, Porto Alegre, 2021.

ARISTÓTELES. Analíticos posteriores. In: ARISTÓTELES. Órganon: Categorias, Da Interpretação, Analíticos anteriores, Analíticos posteriores, Tópicos, Refutações sofísticas. São Paulo, Edipro, p. 265-365, 2016.

AUDI, Robert. Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge. 3rd ed. Taylor & Francis, 2011.

BALL, Brian & BLOME-TILLMANN, Michael. Counter Closure and Knowledge despite Falsehood. Philosophical Quarterly, v. 64, n. 257, p. 552-568, 2014.

BORGES, Rodrigo. Inferential Knowledge and The Gettier Conjecture. In: BORGES, R. & DE ALMEIDA, C. & KLEIN, P. (Eds.). Explaining Knowledge: New Essays On The Gettier Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 273-291, 2017.

BORGES, Rodrigo. Knowledge from Knowledge. American Philosophical Quarterly, v. 57, n. 3, p. 283-298, 2020. doi:10.2307/48574439

BUFORD, Christopher & MICHAEL CLOOS, Christopher. A Dilemma for the Knowledge despite Falsehood Strategy. Episteme, v. 15, n. 2, p. 166-182, 2018. doi:10.1017/epi.2016.53.

CHISHOLM, Roderick. Theory of Knowledge. Prentice Hall, 1989.

CLARK, Michael. Knowledge and Ground: A Comment on Mr. Gettier’s Paper. Analysis, v. 24, n. 2, p. 46-48, 1963.

DE ALMEIDA, Claudio & FETT, J. R. Defeasibility and Gettierization: a reminder. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, v. 94, n. 1, p. 152-169, 2016.

DE ALMEIDA, Claudio. Knowledge, Benign Falsehoods, and the Gettier Problem. In: BORGES, R. & DE ALMEIDA, C. & KLEIN, P. (Eds.). Explaining Knowledge: New Essays On The Gettier Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 292-311, 2017.

DE ALMEIDA, Claudio. Epistemic Closure and Epistemological Optimism. Philosophia, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-020-00206-5

FETT, João Rizzio. O que é o conhecimento?: Uma introdução à epistemologia contemporânea. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, 2019.

FITELSON, Branden. Closure, Counter-Closure, and Inferential Knowledge. In: BORGES, R. & DE ALMEIDA, C. & KLEIN, P. (Eds.). Explaining Knowledge: New Essays On The Gettier Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 312-324, 2017.

HARMAN, Gilbert. Thought. Princeton University Press, 1973.

HINTINKKA, Jaako. Knowledge and Belief: An Introduction to the Logic of the Two Notions, new edition, ed. Vincent F. Hendricks and John Symons, London: King’s College Publications (2005), 1962.

KLEIN, Peter. Certainty: A Refutation of Scepticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1981.

KLEIN, Peter. Useful false beliefs. In: SMITH, Q. (Ed.). Epistemology: New Essays. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 30-64, 2008.

KLEIN, Peter. The Nature of Knowledge. In: BORGES, R. & DE ALMEIDA, C. & KLEIN, P. (Eds.). Explaining Knowledge: New Essays On The Gettier Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 35-56, 2017.

KNOBE, Joshua & NICHOLS, Shaun. Experimental Philosophy. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition). Edward N. Zalta (ed.), 2017. Disponível em: <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/experimental-philosophy/>.

LEHRER, Keith & PAXSON, Thomas. Knowledge: Undefeated justified true belief. Journal of Philosophy, v. 66, n. 8, p. 225-237, 1969.

LUZZI, Federico. What Does Knowledge-yielding Deduction Require Of Its Premises? Episteme, v. 11, n. 3, p. 261-275, 2014.

LUZZI, Federico. Knowledge from Non-Knowledge: Inference, Testimony and Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2019. doi:10.1017/9781108649278

MONTMINY, Martin. Knowledge Despite Falsehood. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, v. 44, n. 3-4, p. 463-475, 2014.

MURPHY, Peter. Justified Belief from Unjustified Belief. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, v. 98, n. 4, p. 602-617, 2017.

OLIVIER, K. Agent Reliabilism and Inferential Knowledge from Gettiered Belief. Episteme, p. 1-16, 2020. doi:10.1017/epi.2020.15

PRITCHARD, Duncan. Knowledge. 2nd ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

TURRI, John. In Gettier’s wake. In: HETHERINGTON, Stephen. (Ed.). Epistemology: The Key Thinkers. New York: Continuum, p. 214-229, 2012.

TURRI, John. Knowledge from Falsehood: An Experimental Study. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy, v. 8, n. 3, p. 167-178, 2019.

WARFIELD, Ted. Knowledge From Falsehood. Philosophical Perspectives, v. 19, n. 1, p. 405-416, 2005.

WILLIAMSON, Timothy. Doing Philosophy: From Common Curiosity to Logical Reasoning. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Published

2021-09-02

How to Cite

Alves, E. (2021). Restoring the Fallibilist Defeasibility Approach to Knowledge from Falsehood. Intuitio, 14(1), e40517. https://doi.org/10.15448/1983-4012.2021.1.40517

Issue

Section

Articles