How do we define Knowledge? This is a fundamental question that epistemologists debate and have formed numerous arguments towards. In Chapter 3, Pritchard suggest that the task to define knowledge is centered on the problem of criterion. The problem of criterion proposes two claims, the first being, “I can only identify instances of knowledge provided I already know what the criteria for knowledge are” (Pritchard 20). The second claim is “I can only know what the criteria for knowledge are provided I am already able to identify instances of knowledge” (Pritchard 21). As epistemologists, these claims give us two options. We can either assume we know the criteria for knowledge and use them to identify cases of knowledge (methodism), or we can assume that we can identify cases of knowledge and deduce the criteria for knowledge from similarities between these cases (particularism). These two methods counter each other and split epistemologists into separate beliefs about how to go about finding a definition for knowledge.

Although Pritchard stresses in Chapter 3 the importance of justification for one’s belief, he also states that matters are not that straightforward. This is due to the work of Edmund Gettier, who throws a wrench in the classical theory of knowledge. Pritchard presents us with an example where John reads the correct time from a stopped clock. In the case, John meets the conditions for the classical theory of knowledge; however, John’s JTB is based on luck. Gettier therefore argues that there is a fault in the JTB definition of knowledge due to the fact that luck can sometimes still sneak in. According to Gettier, John would not have knowledge.

Naturally, Gettier’s counter-examples to the classical theory of knowledge caused uproar in the philosophy/epistemology community. In response, epistemologists have attempted to narrow the gap between JTB and knowledge, “… a natural idea is to amend one’s analysis of knowledge by including an explicit ‘anti-luck’ condition” (Ichikawa). One major concern is the factor of presuppositions in Gettier’s work. Can we say that you have knowledge if one has a justified true belief and none of the presuppositions are false? Pritchard explains, “… it is difficult to spell out this idea of a presupposition such that it is strong enough to deal with Gettier cases and yet not so strong that it prevents us from having most of the knowledge what we think we have” (26).  The complex question of what defines as a presupposition is raised. D. M. Armstrong argues that, “Gettier’s examples are defective because they rely on the false principle that false propositions can justify one’s belief in other propositions” (Feldman 68). Between these opposing beliefs, there is a middle ground where we must have an understanding of presuppositions so that Gettier cases hold, yet non-Gettier cases are not affected by this understanding.

So have we found a method yet that will help us arrive at a definition for knowledge? For every theory of how to begin defining knowledge that has been presented to us thus far, we have been given counter-examples. Pritchard presents us with methodism and particularism and Gettier finds problems with the JTB account of knowledge that Feldman then goes on to counter. Feldman writes, “If his evidence is true, or only if he knows it to be true, there are still counter-examples to the justified true belief analysis of knowledge of the Gettier sort” (69). As Pritchard concludes at the end of this chapter, we do not have a clear method that gives us a generally acknowledged unambiguous definition for knowledge.  The question is, with so many opposing methods and counter-examples, will we ever?

Outside Source: Ichikawa, Jonathan Jenkins and Steup, Matthias, “The Analysis of Knowledge”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/knowledge-analysis/>.