Single Idea 19710

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 4. Tracking the Facts]

Full Idea

The causal theory of justification was soon replaced by Nozick's construal of knowledge as counterfactually sensitive to its truth value (that is, it tracks truth). A counterfactual theory of causation connects this to the causal theory.

Gist of Idea

With a counterfactual account of the causal theory, we get knowledge as tracking or sensitive to truth

Source

Hamid Vahid (Externalism/Internalism [2011], 3)

Book Reference

'Routledge Companion to Epistemology', ed/tr. Bernecker,S/Pritchard,D [Routledge 2014], p.150


A Reaction

This is presented as an externalist theory, close to the causal theory (and prior to the reliability theory). But how could you be 'sensitive' to a changing truth if the justification was all external? Externally supported beliefs seem ossified.