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Full Idea
A true belief is not knowledge when it is deduced from a false belief (as when deducing that the late Prime Minister's name began with B, believing it was Balfour, when actually it was Bannerman).
Gist of Idea
True belief is not knowledge when it is deduced from false belief
Source
Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch.13)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.76
A Reaction
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this the 'Gettier Problem'? It raises the central question of modern epistemology, which is what will be counted as adequate justification to make a true belief qualify as knowledge. How high do we set the bar?
6444 | True belief about the time is not knowledge if I luckily observe a stopped clock at the right moment [Russell] |
5430 | A true belief is not knowledge if it is reached by bad reasoning [Russell] |
5429 | True belief is not knowledge when it is deduced from false belief [Russell] |
8886 | Being a true justified belief is not a sufficient condition for knowledge [Gettier] |
20225 | For internalists Gettier situations are where internally it is fine, but there is an external mishap [Zagzebski] |
20226 | Gettier problems are always possible if justification and truth are not closely linked [Zagzebski] |
20228 | We avoid the Gettier problem if the support for the belief entails its truth [Zagzebski] |
20227 | Gettier cases arise when good luck cancels out bad luck [Zagzebski] |
19004 | Gettier says you don't know if you are confused about how it is true [Yablo] |
19699 | A Gettier case is a belief which is true, and its fallible justification involves some luck [Hetherington] |
19728 | Gettier and lottery cases seem to involve luck, meaning bad connection of beliefs to facts [Black,T] |
19266 | In a disjunctive case, the justification comes from one side, and the truth from the other [Vaidya] |
19260 | Gettier deductive justifications split the justification from the truthmaker [Vaidya] |