4.3 Post-Gettier theories of knowledge

Post-Gettier theories of knowledge emerged to address the shortcomings of the traditional tripartite theory. These approaches, like causal and tracking theories, aim to provide more robust definitions of knowledge that can withstand Gettier-style counterexamples.

Reliabilism, infallibilism, contextualism, and virtue epistemology offer diverse perspectives on what constitutes knowledge. Each theory grapples with the complexities of justification, truth, and belief, seeking to refine our understanding of how we acquire and validate knowledge.

Causal and Tracking Theories

Causal Theory and False Lemmas

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• Causal theory of knowledge proposes knowledge results from a causal connection between the fact and the belief
• Alvin Goldman developed this theory to address Gettier problems
• Requires beliefs to be caused by the facts they are about
• Addresses some Gettier cases by eliminating beliefs based on false premises
• No false lemmas principle ensures intermediate steps in reasoning are true
• Challenges arise with cases of deviant causal chains (strange coincidences leading to true beliefs)

Tracking Theories of Knowledge

• Tracking theories focus on the relationship between beliefs and truth across different scenarios
• Robert Nozick's theory requires beliefs to "track" the truth in nearby possible worlds
• Sensitivity condition stipulates if a proposition were false, the subject would not believe it
• Adherence condition requires if a proposition remains true in slightly different circumstances, the subject would still believe it
• Aims to account for our intuitions about knowledge in various counterfactual situations
• Faces difficulties with certain counterexamples (necessary truths, skeptical scenarios)

Reliabilism and Infallibilism

Reliabilism and its Variants

• Reliabilism posits knowledge stems from beliefs formed through reliable cognitive processes
• Alvin Goldman proposed this theory as an alternative to traditional justification requirements
• Process reliabilism focuses on the reliability of the belief-forming method
• Agent reliabilism considers the overall reliability of the cognitive agent
• Addresses Gettier problems by emphasizing the importance of reliable belief formation
• Faces challenges with the generality problem (defining appropriate levels of generality for processes)

Infallibilism and Safety

• Infallibilism contends knowledge requires absolute certainty or infallible justification
• Historically associated with philosophers like Descartes
• Modern epistemologists generally reject strict infallibilism as too demanding
• Safety condition emerges as a more moderate alternative to infallibilism
• Safety requires that in nearby possible worlds where the subject believes the proposition, it is true
• Duncan Pritchard argues safety is necessary for knowledge
• Differs from sensitivity by focusing on nearby worlds where the belief is held, rather than where the proposition is false

Contextualism and Virtue Epistemology

Contextualism in Epistemology

• Contextualism proposes the truth conditions for knowledge attributions vary based on context
• Keith DeRose and David Lewis developed influential versions of contextualism
• Aims to resolve skeptical paradoxes by allowing knowledge standards to shift
• Ordinary contexts have lower standards for knowledge than skeptical contexts
• Invariantism, the opposing view, maintains fixed standards for knowledge across contexts
• Subject-sensitive invariantism (Jason Stanley) attempts to reconcile contextualist insights with invariantism

Virtue Epistemology and Knowledge-First Approaches

• Virtue epistemology focuses on intellectual virtues or cognitive character traits
• Ernest Sosa's virtue reliabilism combines reliabilism with virtue-based approaches
• Linda Zagzebski's pure virtue epistemology defines knowledge in terms of acts of intellectual virtue
• Aims to provide a unified account of epistemic evaluation (knowledge, understanding, wisdom)
• Knowledge-first epistemology, proposed by Timothy Williamson, takes knowledge as the fundamental epistemic notion
• Reverses traditional analysis by defining other epistemic concepts in terms of knowledge
• Challenges the assumption that knowledge can be analyzed into more basic components