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Justified True Belief: Plato, Gettier, and Turing

  • ️Wed May 31 2017

Abstract

We examine the relationship between the justified true belief (JTB) account of knowledge and Plato’s theory about it as expounded in the Theaetetus. Considering Socrates’ remarks in the Theaetetus brings us to some concerns raised by Turing and to Wittgenstein’s famous comment explanations come to an end somewhere. We present two simple technical results which bear on the question. Finally, we look at the pragmatic aspects of knowledge attributions. In an Appendix we say a few words about Indian epistemology and Gettier problems.

It is so difficult to find the beginning.

Or, better: it is difficult to begin at the beginning.

And not try to go further back.

On Certainty, Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that Turing is neutral between thinking about the computer as a person or as a machine and his mentalistic terminology is defensible.

  2. 2.

    Thanks to Melvin Fitting for telling us about this example.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Aranzazu San Gines for some of the references. Arthur Collins also made a useful suggestion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Rohit Parikh

  2. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Adriana Renero

Authors

  1. Rohit Parikh

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  2. Adriana Renero

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rohit Parikh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Juliet Floyd

  2. Department of Philosophy, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Alisa Bokulich

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Parikh, R., Renero, A. (2017). Justified True Belief: Plato, Gettier, and Turing. In: Floyd, J., Bokulich, A. (eds) Philosophical Explorations of the Legacy of Alan Turing. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 324. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53280-6_4

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