back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 5430

[from 'Problems of Philosophy' by Bertrand Russell, in 13. Knowledge Criteria / A. Justification Problems / 2. Justification Challenges / b. Gettier problem ]

Full Idea

A true belief cannot be called knowledge when it is deduced by a fallacious process of reasoning. If I know all Greeks are men, and Socrates was a man, I cannot know that Socrates was a Greek, even if I falsely infer it.

Gist of Idea

A true belief is not knowledge if it is reached by bad reasoning

Source

Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch.13)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.76


A Reaction

Another very nice 'Gettier' example, fifty years before Gettier. There is a danger of circularity here, between knowledge, fallacy and truth. Giving them three independent definitions does not look promising.