Level 54
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Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind

Theories of Knowledge and Justification

The central epistemological project of defining knowledge and explaining what makes a belief justified, from the ancient tripartite analysis through Gettier's challenge to the contemporary foundationalist, coherentist, reliabilist, virtue-based, and contextualist responses.

60-Second Review

Express review

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

  1. The Tripartite (JTB) Analysis of Knowledge. Knowledge as justified true belief, an ancient formula codified by mid-20th-century epistemologists.
  2. Gettier's Counterexamples and the Post-Gettier Debate. Gettier's 1963 cases showed justified true belief can still fail to count as knowledge.
  3. Foundationalism and the Regress Problem. Foundationalism halts the justification regress in basic, non-inferentially justified beliefs.
  4. Coherentism and the Web of Belief. Coherentism grounds justification in a belief system's mutual, holistic support.
  5. Reliabilism and Externalist Theories of Justification. Reliabilism ties justification to belief-forming processes that reliably yield truth.
  6. Virtue Epistemology: Zagzebski and Sosa. Virtue epistemology roots knowledge in intellectual virtues and competent believing.
  7. Internalism versus Externalism in Epistemic Justification. Internalism requires accessible justifying grounds; externalism allows factors beyond awareness.
  8. Contextualism and the Semantics of Knowledge Claims. Contextualism holds that 'knows' claims shift truth conditions with conversational standards.

This is the starting point of Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind: you don't need any prior knowledge of this subject to begin.

Key points

Visual module map

1The Tripartite (JTB) Analysis of Knowledge
2Foundationalism and the Regress Problem
3Reliabilism and Externalist Theories of Justification
4Virtue Epistemology: Zagzebski and Sosa
5Contextualism and the Semantics of Knowledge Claims

Alternative visual view: a simplified sequence of some of the module's key points, in their order within the syllabus.

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Final test

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Time Attack

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Chronological Order

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Further reading

Bibliography and cited sources used to create this module.

  • Gettier, E. L. (1963). 'Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?'. Analysis, 23(6), 121-123.
  • BonJour, L. (1985). The Structure of Empirical Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Goldman, A. I. (1979). 'What Is Justified Belief?'. In G. S. Pappas (Ed.), Justification and Knowledge. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.
  • Zagzebski, L. (1996). Virtues of the Mind: An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sosa, E. (1991). Knowledge in Perspective: Selected Essays in Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • DeRose, K. (2009). The Case for Contextualism: Knowledge, Skepticism, and Context, Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.