Presentation to IB Theory of Knowledge class.

1. ‘Mediocre minds usually ‘The most important truths are Can you come up
dismiss anything which likely to be those which… with a worthy
reaches beyond their own Society at that time least wants to quote about
understanding’ –Francois de hear.’ –W.H. Auden knowledge?
La Rochefoucald
‘Never assume the
‘The criterion of truth is that it works obvious is true’ -William
even if nobody is prepared to Safire
acknowledge it’ –Ludwig von Mises
Knowledge and Justification
‘Education is ‘Shall I teach you what knowledge is? ‘Where there is shouting
learning what When you know a thing, to recognise there is no true
you didn’t even that you know it; and when you do not
knowledge’ – Leonardo
know you didn’t know a thing, to recognise that you do
not know it. da Vinci
know.’ –Daniel J.
Boorstin That is knowledge.’ -Confucius ‘A very popular error –having
the courage of one’s
‘Nothing in all the world is ‘There are many who convictions;
more dangerous than rather it is a matter of having
know many things, yet
sincere ignorance and the courage for an attack
are lacking in wisdom’ - upon one’s convictions.’
conscientious stupidity’ –
Martin Luther King Democritus -Anon

2. What is Knowledge?

3. Write down an example for each of the following:
What are the differences between them?

4. Three Types of Knowledge
1. Questions that have one correct answer.
Example: ‘How many atoms of Hydrogen are
there in a water molecule?’
2. Questions that have many possible answers
but which require justification and reasoned
judgments. Example: ‘What is the best way to
counter the debt problem in the developing
world’?
3. Questions that have no correct answer, but
depend totally on the person answering the
question. Example: ‘What is your favourite
food?’

5. For each of the following questions decide
which of the three categories the answer
fits into.
• How many planets are • Does violence on
there in the solar system? television contribute to
• When was the French violence in the
Revolution? community?
• Is it wrong to kill? • Was Hitler a good leader?
• What is the colour of the • Can a male Doctor know
nearest wall? more about childbirth
• Does God exist? than a mother of ten
children?
• Are you happy?
• What is the name of the
• Is 1 + 1 always 2? current monarch?

6. What is knowledge?
We have seen a variety of different types of
knowledge.
But how exactly should we define it?
In order to try to answer this question, lets go
back to the most basic starting point for
knowledge.

7. False Beliefs
Identify something
that you have been
told, which you
believed at the time,
but which you now
recognise as false.
How did you find out
the truth?

8. A conclusion that we might draw…
Possible conclusion 1:
Knowledge is True Belief

9. But is this always the case?
Consider the following scenario…

10. A man called Henry is driving through a prairie.

11. During this drive, he passes a number of
edifices.

12. These resemble barns, but are in fact 2
dimensional cardboard cut outs, or fake barns.

13. But Henry has been concentrating on the road,
and happens not to look out of his window
whenever he passes a fake barn.

14. Henry and the Fake Barns
Henry continues to drive, It is not a 2 dimensional
and at one point card-board cut-out,
glances out of his car But a fully functioning
window. barn.
He sees a barn.
But this is not like the
other fake barns,
this is the only real barn
in fake barn land.

15. Henry and the Fake Barns
Henry doesn’t think much about
this.
He thinks he sees a barn.
Do you think Henry has knowledge
But if he had looked out at any of the barn that he sees?
other moment on his drive
through fake barn land, he
would have seen a fake barn,
and believed that it was real.
There is a
barn

16. Henry and the Fake Barns
Henry clearly has a true belief –
But is this really knowledge?
What do you think?

17. When Henry looks at the Barn, he sees a real barn,
so his belief is true.
He believes that what he is seeing is a barn, so he
has a belief, both of which are required for
knowledge.
But we might hesitate before saying that he has
knowledge because he is unaware of the fact that
he is surrounded by fake barns.
We want to say that his knowledge lacks the
necessary justification.

18. Justification
It seems that Justification is an essential
component of knowledge.

19. A conclusion that we might draw…
Possible conclusion 2:
Knowledge is True, justified Belief

20. “Knowledge
is justified,
true belief”
This was what Plato thought…

21. Tasks:
1. Does the ‘justified, true belief’ definition fit out
understanding of the term ‘knowledge’? Or does
it wrongly include or exclude anything? Can you
think of a situation where either:
• Someone might have justified, True, Belief, but
we wouldn’t say they knew something?
• Or someone did not have justified, true, belief,
but we would say they knew something?

22. Edmund Gettier
Edmund Gettier wrote an
article which provides
several examples of
examples of beliefs that
are both true and
justified, but that he
claims we should not
call ‘knowledge’
Cases of this sort are now
called ‘Gettier-counter-
examples’

23. Validity and Justification
Perhaps we should not talk about certain
knowledge – but rather about ‘weak’ or ‘strong’
justification.
For example, we might say that Henry had ‘poor’
justification for claiming to have knowledge that
there was a barn on the prairie.
It was ‘poor’ because there was such a high chance
of him being fooled as he did not know about the
fake barns.

24. Types of Justification
Task: Which do you think are a) the most and
b) the least reliable forms of justification?

25. Below is a list of dubious things that I might claim to know, and
another list of reasons that I might give to support these pieces
of knowledge. Match the reasons to the claims:
Knowledge Claims Justification
1. the sky is blue Value Judgment
2. that 1+1=2 Faith
3. that it is wicked to murder a person Memory
4. that I have a fear of spiders Authority
5. that I went out for a run yesterday. Intuition
6. that what the doctor said is true. Divine Revelation
7. that women are more emotional than men Sense perception
8. exactly what God wants of me Logic
9. that I am going to heaven Self-Awareness
10. that a lake is more beautiful than a sewage Common Knowledge
works Instinct
11. that I love my brother

26. A problem with Justification
• Justification is subjective.
Implications of having a belief:
• This is problematic because
from the knower’s
perspective there is very
little to distinguish belief
from knowledge, and
arguments to the contrary
appear circular,
• because they assume what
they are attempting to
prove.

27. Some tentative Conclusions…
• Perhaps contrary to what you have so far
found in your formal education, certainty and
truth are not easily found.
• Justification is a matter of degree
• However it is possible to begin making initial
definitions about what knowledge is.
• ‘Justified true belief’ may not be fool-proof
but it is a positive step