CHAPTER FOUR

IS JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

Edmund Gettier’s famous 1963 paper, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”, popularized the claim that the definition of knowledge as justified true belief had been widely accepted throughout the history of philosophy.37 The extent to which this is true is highly contentious, since Plato himself disavowed the “justified true belief” view at the end of the Theaetetus.38 Regardless of the accuracy of the claim, Gettier’s paper produced major widespread discussion which completely reoriented epistemology in the second half of the 20th century, with a newfound focus on trying to provide an airtight definition of knowledge by adjusting or replacing the “justified true belief” view.