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Full Idea
If each of you says how many teeth the other has, and when they are counted we find you do know, we will believe your other claims as well.
Gist of Idea
Say how many teeth the other has, then count them. If you are right, we will trust your other claims
Source
Plato (Euthydemus [c.385 BCE], 294c)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Early Socratic Dialogues', ed/tr. Saunders,Trevor J [Penguin 1987], p.353
A Reaction
This is the clairvoyant problem for reliabilism, if truth is delivered for no apparent reason. Useful, but hardly knowledge. HOW did you know the number of teeth?
24232 | Truth is speaking what is and things that are [Plato] |
24233 | If speech is making something, then lies are impossible [Plato] |
16120 | Knowing how to achieve immortality is pointless without the knowledge how to use immortality [Plato] |
301 | Only knowledge of some sort is good [Plato] |
302 | What knowledge is required to live well? [Plato] |
303 | Say how many teeth the other has, then count them. If you are right, we will trust your other claims [Plato] |
304 | Beautiful things must be different from beauty itself, but beauty itself must be present in each of them [Plato] |
305 | Something which lies midway between two evils is better than either of them [Plato] |