Conditions for Knowledge
Conditions for Knowledge by Robert Nozick analyzes the conditions of knowledge that are sufficient and necessary for propositional knowledge. He uses two letters to express each argument. Those two letters are “S” and “P”. “S” refers to the subject of the argument, while “P” is the proposition. The three conditions of knowledge are the following Truth, Justified (Evidence), and Belief. Once all three conditions are congruent, knowledge is, therefore, a “True Justified Belief”. He claims that S knows that P if and only if P follows a criterion. For instance, P is true therefore S believes that P is. However, if P weren’t true S wouldn’t believe P. Lastly if P is true, S would believe that P is in fact. When the 3rd and 4th criteria are fulfilled S’s belief is said to “track the truth”. One example he uses can help bring a better understanding. Suppose that S believes that (P): someone in the office owns a ford. Based on this belief supposedly a coworker named Brown owns the ford. However, it is not Brown who owns the ford but it is Jones, another coworker. So S would have failed to satisfy the subjunctive condition because if P weren’t true S wouldn’t believe P, but it would continue to believe (P, someone in the office owning a ford) even if Jones didn’t own the ford. The conditions of knowledge seem to follow the critical philosophy criteria, because there isn’t always a certainty to all the facts, definitions, etc.… Also, since there isn’t much certainty, skepticism can arise even if there is much analysis.
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